The Museum of Coastal Carolina is a

natural history museum A natural history museum or museum of natural history is a scientific institution with natural history collections that include current and historical records of animals, plants, fungi, ecosystems, geology, paleontology, climatology, and more. ...

located at

Ocean Isle Beach The ocean (also the sea or the world ocean) is the body of salt water that covers approximately 70.8% of the surface of Earth and contains 97% of Earth's water. An ocean can also refer to any of the large bodies of water into which the worl ...

Brunswick County, North Carolina Brunswick County is the southernmost County (United States), county in the U.S. state of North Carolina. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 136,693. Its population was only 73,143 in 2000, making it one of the ...

. Animal exhibits include an aquarium and a touch tank with live sea animals, shells,

fossils A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved in ...

, insects, a display about sharks, live snakes, bird dioramas and an ocean

reef A reef is a ridge or shoal of rock, coral or similar relatively stable material, lying beneath the surface of a natural body of water. Many reefs result from natural, abiotic processes— deposition of sand, wave erosion planing down rock out ...

diorama that includes life-sized models of

whales Whales are a widely distributed and diverse group of fully aquatic placental marine mammals. As an informal and colloquial grouping, they correspond to large members of the infraorder Cetacea, i.e. all cetaceans apart from dolphins and ...

sharks Sharks are a group of elasmobranch fish characterized by a cartilaginous skeleton, five to seven gill slits on the sides of the head, and pectoral fins that are not fused to the head. Modern sharks are classified within the clade Selachimorp ...

, sea turtles and

rays Ray may refer to: Fish * Ray (fish), any cartilaginous fish of the superorder Batoidea * Ray (fish fin anatomy), a bony or horny spine on a fin Science and mathematics * Ray (geometry), half of a line proceeding from an initial point * Ray (gra ...

. Other exhibits include river basins, the effects of

storm water runoff Surface runoff (also known as overland flow) is the flow of water occurring on the ground surface when excess rainwater, stormwater, meltwater, or other sources, can no longer sufficiently rapidly infiltrate in the soil. This can occur when the s ...

and beach

litter Litter consists of waste products that have been discarded incorrectly, without consent, at an unsuitable location. Litter can also be used as a verb; to litter means to drop and leave objects, often man-made, such as aluminum cans, paper cups, ...

on the water's ecology,

barrier island Barrier islands are coastal landforms and a type of Dune, dune system that are exceptionally flat or lumpy areas of sand that form by wave and tidal action parallel to the mainland coast. They usually occur in chains, consisting of anything fro ...

s and tides. The museum also includes displays of local and maritime history, including shipbuilding and area Native Americans. The museum offers afternoon and evening programs and special lectures, including area efforts to protect

sea turtles Sea turtles (superfamily Chelonioidea), sometimes called marine turtles, are reptiles of the order Testudines and of the suborder Cryptodira. The seven existing species of sea turtles are the flatback, green, hawksbill, leatherback, loggerhead, ...

. The Board of Trustees of the Ocean Isle Museum Foundation, Inc. is the governing body of the Ingram Planetarium, located 4 miles away in Sunset Beach, North Carolina, as well as the Museum of Coastal Carolina.

References

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Aquaria in North Carolina {{Portal, United States This category is for public aquariums in North Carolina, United States. Zoos in North Carolina North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th lar ...

Natural history museums in North Carolina Museums in Brunswick County, North Carolina Museums established in 1991 1991 establishments in North Carolina