FAQ'S

Do you have touch tanks?

Yes – we have exhibits where you can engage with specimens to discover their textures and movements. Many visitors are curious about what barnacles, sand dollars, and scallops are, and many are astounded to learn that these are ALIVE! Through the hands-on exhibits, we aim to help visitors connect with organisms they perhaps have never seen or valued before. Through their interactions, we hope that visitors will discover a new love for an invertebrate they’ve never met and that this will fuel their enthusiasm to protect this beautiful, shared world we live in.

To ensure the organisms in the interactive exhibits are not negatively affected by their time there, we have a number of rules to follow if you’d like to engage with them:

1) Rinse hands in the sink

2) Follow the directions of our personnel, and ask questions if you’re unsure! We love to help!

3) Touch the animals with your pinky finger only

4) Do not lift the animals out of the water

5) Not all of the tanks are finger-friendly, so please read through the signage before you reach in.

Can I bring my pet?

We welcome certified service animals. We’ve also been proud to host many service dogs in training over the years. Service animals go through specific training protocols which allow us to feel comfortable welcoming them into the aquarium.

Sadly, we cannot welcome other animals into the facility for safety and security reasons, for the wellbeing of both our human and non-human visitors. We cannot be sure of an animal’s background and training outside of the service programs.

Do I need to purchase a ticket in advance?

We do not sell tickets in advance.

Can we book a tour?

If you are part of a group that is larger than 8 people, we recommend emailing or calling at least two weeks in advance so that we can ensure we have enough staff members available during the time of your visit to answer all your questions.

In our regular practice, we don’t book private tours. Our standard of practice is to have many staff members and volunteers positioned throughout the facility so that we can engage with you to hear your questions and share stories. Our wonderful team will collaborate to share the diversity of their knowledge, training, and experiences. We encourage you to ask our team members as many questions as you can! We love an ID question, a curiosity. We love a quest for knowledge.

Can I drop off my kids?

Children 16 years old or younger must be accompanied by an adult.

What do you have?

This changes all the time and is the main excitement of a collect-and-release aquarium!!

Even though we change our exhibits every season, there are some things we can guarantee. There will be fish. There will be crabs. There will be nudibranchs, and there will be clams. We cannot promise a spiny lumpsucker or a hagfish. We wish we could always showcase umbrella crabs and squat lobsters. There may be an octopus, but they may also have been released back home depending on how quickly they grow (they double in size every 4 months!!!).

The specific species that we display will depend on the conditions at the time of our collection (El Nino years bring a different diversity to the area than El Nina years or other environmental changes do), as well as the stories that we’re currently telling. We know that many people have a favourite organism that they’re hoping to see, but our deepest hope is that you will come in and find a new organism to love. Hopefully, one you knew nothing about before!

Do you have an octopus?

Maybe! We change our exhibits often and that includes our octopus exhibit. Giant Pacific octopuses can double in size in 4 months, which means they are a species we release and collect frequently depending on their original collection size and how fast they grow. We know that octopuses are an animal that captures everyone’s hearts, but we also have a large number of beautiful, interesting, and intriguing fish and invertebrates that we would love to introduce you to if we’re currently octo-less!

What time are you open?

Our season runs from March 1st to November 30th, including holidays. We open at 10 am, and close at 4:30, with the last entry at 4:00 pm.

Where can I park?

There is a lot of parking around town. The closest free parking is located right outside the Aquarium on Fraser Lane. The Cedar Road parking lot is diagonally across from the Ucluelet Aquarium behind the Crow’s Nest.

Where can I park my RV?

You can park your RV in the parking lot located on Cedar Road just down and opposite the RCMP station.

Where is a good place to see tidepools?

Big Beach is a wonderful place to explore, as are many of Ucluelet’s beaches! Just remember when you head out to always check the tides and be extremely careful on rocky shorelines and near waves and currents.

The West Coast can be a wild and dangerous place! Also remember to follow Leave No Trace principles – “Take only photographs, Leave only footprints”. It is important to leave shells on the beach so that calcium can return to the water and help build the next generation of snails, sand dollars, and chitons. It is also important to remember not to pull animals off rocks, and to always put a rock back the way it was if you turn it over.

Many animals breathe through their feet which are damaged if you remove them. Rocks in the intertidal zone create important refuge spaces for intertidal species by providing shelter from rain, wind, dehydrating sunshine, and predators. We imagine giants pulling roofs off our houses to see how cute we are, we’d want that roof back!

What else is there to do in town?

We are a coastal community and that means we have a richness of coastlines- there are so many to explore! We also share this community with some wonderful artists and creators. Check out some of the local shops and galleries.

What else is there to do in town when it’s raining?

There is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing!  Pioneer Boatworks, located just one minute away from us, is a great place to get rainwear, as is the Ucluelet Co-op, and the Redd Fish Restoration store for some wooly warm layers. Once all geared up, the world is your oyster!