Sip and Paint at the Aquarium

Uncork your inner artist at the new Sip and Paint series at the North Carolina Aquarium at Fort Fisher.

Painting sessions run from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.  Sessions include paint, canvas and easel use and cost $45 per person. NC Aquarium Society Members receive a 10% discount.  Upcoming themes and schedule is as follows:

CrabaQUARIUM
July 8 - Sip and Paint (Adults Only)

Sharks
July 15 - Family Paint Night (No Alcohol)

Octopus
July 29 - Sip and Paint (Adults Only)

Jellies
August 5 - Family Paint Night (No Alcohol)

Trick or Treat Under The Sea with the NC Aquarium at Fort Fisher

The North Carolina Aquarium at Fort Fisher recently ranked among the best Aquariums in the country based on guest experiences shared online.  

"This type of recognition validates the hard work of our staff and the exceptional guest experience the Aquarium provides connecting individuals with nature and fun," said Aquarium Director Peggy Sloan

 Bring your little goblins to see us this October for a spooktacular good time!

Pirate skeletons, caped superheroes and fairy princesses once again haunt the North Carolina Aquarium at Fort Fisher for Trick or Treat Under the Sea.  

The newly expanded 2014 event features four nights of ghoulish good times:

When: Thursday, Oct. 23; Friday, Oct. 24; Wednesday, Oct. 29 and Thursday, Oct. 30

Time: 5:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.

Grab your costume and troll the Aquarium for spooky good times. Halloween games and magic shows will have the family shrieking with delight. Haunted gardens, live animal encounters and scary divers swimming among the sharks get the adrenaline pumping.

Local merchants, also costumed for the event, give away treats and coupons to trick-or-treaters. Judges will recognize the booths with the most imaginative, spooky and environmentally friendly theme each evening.

This year's sponsors include Chick-fil-A, Eye Associates of Wilmington and WILMA magazine. Booths and limited sponsorship opportunities are still available.

Tickets:

Advance tickets available online at http://www.ncaquariums.com/fort-fisher and at the Aquarium.

Tickets are $11 each. Children 2 years old and younger are free. Tickets may also be purchased at the door. Children 16 and younger must be accompanied by an adult. 

Be green and bring your own trick-or-treat bag.

North Carolina Aquarium at Fort Fisher Named One of the Best Aquariums in the U.S.

The Travel Channel published their list of the Best Aquariums in the U.S. and the North Carolina Aquarium at Fort Fisher came in at #4 out of 20 on the list! 

Of course, we're not surprised because we know and love our Fort Fisher Aquarium. From the live alligator feeding to hands-on exploration of horseshoe crabs, snails, and hermit crabs, live diving exhibits, and up-close-and-personal encounters with the sharks in the big tank, the Fort Fisher Aquarium is an amazing place for discovery and exploration.  It can also be a wonderfully peaceful place during some of the less busy hours. It is truly a destination for every age!

The location along the southernmost tip of Pleasure Island provides a spectacular backdrop for the Aquarium, quickly putting the exhibits in context.

The Travel Channel loves the Fort Fisher Aquarium for the "fear-factor moments" you'll experience here:

"Touch a live shark, discover North Carolina’s fiercest predator and come face-to-face with an alligator … if you dare."

The Aquarium is open from 9am to 5pm daily and is only closed 3 days a year (Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's Day).  That means it will be open all through Labor Day Weekend!  Come and enjoy one of the Travel Channel's favorite Aquariums right here in our own backyard.

Learn more about the North Carolina Aquarium at Fort Fisher.

Adventure Reef Outdoor Play Area at the NC Aquarium at Fort Fisher

Get outside and play more. That’s the message from the N.C. Aquarium at Fort Fisher, as the
attraction opens a new outdoor play area,
Adventure Reef.

Adventure Reef dares children ages 2 to 12 to climb, crawl, wiggle, leap, balance, swing and slide their way to fun in a safe and engaging way. Adventure Reef features unique components—springy climbing cables, spinning bars, wobble pods—to flex children’s mental and physical muscles. In addition to the play structure, families can explore together to find fossilized shark teeth and other treasures in a new fossil dig area shaped like a spiraling nautilus shell.

“This is not an average play ground,” said Aquarium Director Peggy Sloan. “Adventure Reef begs to be enthusiastically explored and conquered. The only limit to the fun is the child’s imagination.”
A ribbon cutting at 10 a.m. on Monday, June 11, officially opens the new play area.
Generous donations from the North Carolina Aquarium Society and corporate partners Time Warner Cable, Inc.; PotashCorp-Aurora; Pizza Hut, Inc.; and the Weston Foundation funded the construction of Adventure Reef.

The Aquarium developed the play set’s innovative design with Landscape Structures Inc., a manufacturer committed to using U.S. vendors and offsetting their CO2 foot-print.

Learn more: http://www.ncaquariums.com/archives/11910

NC Aquarium hosts Scales and Tails Event

Do you like being up close to rarely seen animals? The North Carolina Aquarium at Fort Fisher will host its annual Scales and Tails event on Saturday and Sunday, March 6-7, 2010. The event is a two-day celebration of our amphibian and reptile friends.

Visitors will have an opportunity to see, touch and learn about our cold-blooded neighbors.

Aquarium staff and invited experts will introduce the public to dozens of live amphibians and reptiles, including alligators, snakes, iguanas, lizards, turtles and MORE!

There will be exhibitors and Aquarium staff personal collections of rare and interesting animals that aren’t normally on display.

Event Details:

• What: Scales and Tails Event
• Where: NC Aquarium at Fort Fisher
• When: March 6, 2010 and March 7, 2010
• Start Time: 9 AM
• End Time: 5 PM
• Admission: Free with Aquarium admission

For more information please contact the Fort Fisher Aquarium at 910-458-8257.

North Carolina Aquarium at Fort Fisher to Build Kids Playground

The Greater Wilmington Business Journal reports that the North Carolina Aquarium at Fort Fisher is breaking ground to build an interactive kids playground.  This will be a fun and welcome addition to the Aquarium!

From the GWBJ report:

The NC Aquarium at Fort Fisher is breaking ground on a new interactive children’s playground slated to be open this summer...

Aquarium Director Donna Moffitt said, “We’re very pleased about providing a safe, fun and unique play area in our garden. Using private donations, we’ve been able to hire a local fabricator to create this one-of-a-kind Adventure Reef."

The aquarium is looking for a corporate sponsor to fund the final two phases of the project, a turtle crawl and sea squirt play area. Those two phases total about $25,000.

Kilgore said the aquarium has been planning the project since last summer.

To get more details on this project and to read the full article, please visit: Aquarium installing interactive playground

Carolina Beach Aquarium Pier Proposal

The Greater Wilmington Business Journal reports that Carolina Beach Town Manager Tim Owens went before the New Hanover County Commissioners yesterday with a proposal to partner with Carolina Beach and the North Carolina Aquarium to build the new Aquarium Pier.

Owens requested $1.4 million from New Hanover County.  The total cost from Carolina Beach is estimated at $4 million. This money would be used "to establish beach access, a bathhouse with shower and dressing facilities, flexible park space for outdoor events, connectivity with the boardwalk and an improved marina for recreational boating and canoe access points."  The Town of Carolina Beach already purchased 2 acres of land they are reserving for the Pier.

The North Carolina Aquarium would be responsible for building the Pier.  The cost of this construction is approximately $15 million and will be funded with gate receipts.

The Aquarium Pier would be an educational project associated with the North Carolina Aquarium at Fort Fisher.

Owens was hoping that the New Hanover County funding would come from the $35 million parks bond but the county’s Parks and Gardens Director, Jim McDaniel, said that they had committed most of the parks bond money to a park in Castle Hayne that has previously been under-served.  This was their priority.

The New Hanover County Commissioners did not vote on the Aquarium Pier proposal but said they may bring it up at a later date.  Meanwhile, Owens will be looking into alternative grant opportunities.

Please read the full article from the Greater Wilmington Business Journal here:
Carolina Beach makes pitch for help with aquarium pier.

NC Aquarium at Fort Fisher - Free Admission for MLK Day

The North Carolina Aquarium at Fort Fisher is offering FREE Admission in celebration of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, January 18, 2010.

Martin Luther King Jr. Day is one of two holidays each year that the aquariums reserve for the public to visit without an admission charge. The other “free day” is Veterans Day (Nov. 11).

The Fort Fisher Aquarium hours are 9 -5 daily.

Visit the Aquarium at Fort Fisher to see alligators, snakes, saltwater and freshwater fish, jellyfish, octopus, sharks, rays, eels, and so much more!

For more information, please visit www.NCAquariums.com/fort-fisher or call (910) 458-8257.