Museum of Coastal Carolina

Museum of Coastal Carolina Museum of Coastal Carolina A visit to the Museum of Coastal Carolina is a treat for the young and the young at heart. Happy, interactive voices are encouraged!

Many vacationers include it as a multi-generational activity for the whole family. Local residents know that it is one of Brunswick County’s best family activities. If you think museums are stuffy, quiet places that people visit for research, contemplation, or when there’s nothing else to do, then you haven’t visited North Carolina’s only natural history museum on a barrier island. Exterior murals

predict some of the things you’ll see inside the Museum of Coastal Carolina. One might hear toddlers calling out “Boat, Daddy, boat!” as they climb into the wooden strip boat made here in Brunswick County. Staff and volunteers often hear “Whoa!” when visitors approach the shark jaw exhibit. Carolina residents track their local rivers to the sea and parents teach their young children to keep the beach clean and protect the animals from trash as they pass the Litterbug Hall of Shame. Get up close to the area wildlife on display in the Green Swamp diorama. Then touch or hold a sea star, an urchin, hermit crab, or a horseshoe crab at the touch tank. Learn the inside story of shells at the updated Carolina Shells and Fossils exhibit. Don’t forget to bring your beach treasures to identify! Hear “oohs and aahs” as you take a walk through the Ocean Reef Gallery that depicts a reef habitat about 65 miles off the coast of North Carolina. The toddler area in the Barrier Island Gallery has puppets, toy ocean animals, puzzles, and lots of happy noise. Then there’s silent awe at the Legacy of the Loggerhead sea turtle exhibit’s short video filmed on Ocean Isle Beach about the life cycle of the loggerhead turtle that includes a mother turtle laying eggs and the hatchlings crawling to the sea. In the Coastal Plain, visitors exclaim “Wow!” when they see the American bald eagle up close and eye-to-eye. Identify the shorebirds you saw on Brunswick beaches. Children like to pretend they are a coyote or a bear with the pelts thrown over their shoulders. Fisherman are heard to exclaim that they learned to fish with a bamboo rod just like the one in the antique fishing equipment exhibit. The Museum of Coastal Carolina is located at 21 East Second Street, Ocean Isle Beach beside the playground and just a block from the beach and the pier. Enjoy coastal natural history . . . for the fun of it! Check http://museumplanetarium.org/ or call 910-579-1016 for further information. For educational and entertaining gifts and toys, visit Nature’s Treasures Gift Shop at the Museum or Galaxy Gifts at the Planetarium.

Join us TODAY for Sandbar Lecture - A Living Rainbow: Inside the World of Painted Buntings!
06/23/2026

Join us TODAY for Sandbar Lecture - A Living Rainbow: Inside the World of Painted Buntings!

Welcome to the Museum of Coastal Carolina and Ingram Planetarium website, operated by the Ocean Isle Museum Foundation, Inc.

🦜 Did you know that "flying rainbows" live among us in southeastern North Carolina?🦜 Join us for our Sandbar Lecture -...
06/18/2026

🦜 Did you know that "flying rainbows" live among us in southeastern North Carolina?
🦜 Join us for our Sandbar Lecture - A Living Rainbow: Inside the World of Painted Buntings on 6/23, and learn about vibrantly-colored songbirds known as painted buntings!
🦜 Cape Fear Bird Observatory Co-founder Evangelyn Buckland will spotlight this uniquely beautiful species whose population is threatened due to habitat loss from coastal and urban development.

Welcome to the Museum of Coastal Carolina and Ingram Planetarium website, operated by the Ocean Isle Museum Foundation, Inc.

🏴‍☠️ Yo Ho Ho! To our ye should go!Mark ye calendars for July 5 - July 10!Much obliged, WWAY TV!
06/16/2026

🏴‍☠️ Yo Ho Ho! To our ye should go!

Mark ye calendars for July 5 - July 10!

Much obliged, WWAY TV!

🏴‍☠️ Ahoy, mateys! Pirate Week is returning to Ocean Isle Beach July 5-10 with sword fighting demonstrations, pirate ghost walks, sea shanties, historical lectures, family activities, and more.

Hosted by the Museum of Coastal Carolina and the Town of Ocean Isle Beach, the weeklong celebration brings North Carolina's pirate history to life with fun for all ages. ⚔️

THANK YOU to everyone who participated in our Beach Sweep - an important part of our annual World Ocean Day celebration!...
06/11/2026

THANK YOU to everyone who participated in our Beach Sweep - an important part of our annual World Ocean Day celebration!

🌊 15 volunteers
🌊 > 600 items of trash collected from the Town of Ocean Isle Beach's waterfront and accesses
🌊 YOUR collections reported to Ocean Conservancy - an organization committed to reducing plastic and other trash in our oceans for 3 decades!

❓ Did you know that studying marine mammals can help advance human and veterinary medicine?❓ Did you know that the UNCW ...
06/11/2026

❓ Did you know that studying marine mammals can help advance human and veterinary medicine?
❓ Did you know that the UNCW Marine Mammal Stranding Program regularly responds to sick, injured, and deceased mammals along the North Carolina coast?

Join us for our 6/16 Sandbar Lecture - Stranded Marine Mammals, and UNCW Biologist Dr. Michael Tift will lead a fascinating discussion of exciting research and conservation milestones!

Part of our World Ocean Day Celebration, join Mike Tift, Director of the UNCW Marine Mammal Stranding Program, a collaborative team of scientists and students that responds to sick, injured, […]

TOMORROW - Thursday, June 11 - Join Ocean Connections, Inc.'s Spencer Wall for an unforgettable journey into the fascin...
06/10/2026

TOMORROW - Thursday, June 11 - Join Ocean Connections, Inc.'s Spencer Wall for an unforgettable journey into the fascinating world of marine mammals as part of our World Ocean Day celebration!

REMINDER - Join us TOMORROW for our June 9 Sandbar Lecture - Marine Mammals and Habitats with Mike Penninger of the USCG...
06/08/2026

REMINDER - Join us TOMORROW for our June 9 Sandbar Lecture - Marine Mammals and Habitats with Mike Penninger of the USCG Auxiliary Oak Island Flotilla 10-05!

Welcome to the Museum of Coastal Carolina and Ingram Planetarium website, operated by the Ocean Isle Museum Foundation, Inc.

Join us for our June 9 Sandbar Lecture - Marine Mammals and Habitats!With Mike Penninger of the USCG Auxiliary Oak Islan...
06/04/2026

Join us for our June 9 Sandbar Lecture - Marine Mammals and Habitats!

With Mike Penninger of the USCG Auxiliary Oak Island Flotilla 10-05, you'll explore the beauty around and under our watery world - don't miss it!

Welcome to the Museum of Coastal Carolina and Ingram Planetarium website, operated by the Ocean Isle Museum Foundation, Inc.

Join us TONIGHT at 5:30 for this week's Sandbar Lecture - Sharks of the Carolinas!Bring your friends, family members, an...
06/02/2026

Join us TONIGHT at 5:30 for this week's Sandbar Lecture - Sharks of the Carolinas!

Bring your friends, family members, and neighbors, and grab dinner together afterward for a fun Tuesday evening on the town!

❓ Do you know the important roles often-feared sharks play in maintaining healthy ocean ecosystems?
❗️ Don't miss our June 2 Sandbar Lecture!

Marine Biologist Shane Molander, a researcher for Coastal Carolina University and Saving the Blue, will share fascinating new insights into how sharks move, feed, and use coastal habitats.

Thank you, South Brunswick Magazine, for the shout-out about our Sandbar Lectures!
05/29/2026

Thank you, South Brunswick Magazine, for the shout-out about our Sandbar Lectures!

Discover the Museum of Coastal Carolina’s free Sandbar Lecture Series every Tuesday in June at 5:30 p.m., featuring sharks, mammals, birds and reefs.

Address

21 E 2nd Street
Ocean Isle Beach, NC
28469

Opening Hours

Monday 10am - 4pm
Tuesday 10am - 4pm
Wednesday 10am - 4pm
Thursday 10am - 4pm
Friday 10am - 4pm
Sunday 12pm - 4pm

Telephone

+19105791016

Website

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