Charleston Marine Life Center

Charleston Marine Life Center The University of Oregon's CMLC is part aquarium, part museum, and all discovery, where you can explore Oregon's diverse ocean life from shore to deep sea.
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Kids/students free, Adults $5, Seniors $4.

Come admire the wardrobe changes going on in our decorator crab tank, currently housing both Graceful Decorator Crabs (๐˜–...
08/29/2026

Come admire the wardrobe changes going on in our decorator crab tank, currently housing both Graceful Decorator Crabs (๐˜–๐˜ณ๐˜ฆ๐˜จ๐˜ฐ๐˜ฏ๐˜ช๐˜ข ๐˜จ๐˜ณ๐˜ข๐˜ค๐˜ช๐˜ญ๐˜ช๐˜ด) and Sharp-nosed Crabs (๐˜š๐˜ค๐˜บ๐˜ณ๐˜ข ๐˜ข๐˜ค๐˜ถ๐˜ต๐˜ช๐˜ง๐˜ณ๐˜ฐ๐˜ฏ๐˜ด). These crabs blend into their surroundings by attaching algae and neighboring animals onto hooked bristles on their bodies.

"Wally" the whale has returned to Charleston! The exhibit is still in the Pardon-Our-Dust stage, but we couldn't wait t...
08/26/2026

"Wally" the whale has returned to Charleston! The exhibit is still in the Pardon-Our-Dust stage, but we couldn't wait to share the news with Wally's fans. This Late Miocene skull (~7 million years old) was excavated from the Charleston area in 2007 by the North American Research Group, which donated it to the University of Oregon in 2020. After several years of difficult preparation work by volunteers in UO's paleontology lab, and particularly by UO grad student, Andrea Quintanilla, Wally is home! The Museum of Natural and Cultural History

08/13/2026

Our kelp crab (๐˜—๐˜ถ๐˜จ๐˜ฆ๐˜ต๐˜ต๐˜ช๐˜ข ๐˜ฑ๐˜ณ๐˜ฐ๐˜ฅ๐˜ถ๐˜ค๐˜ต๐˜ข) tank is full of zooming, bouncing dots which are kelp crab larvae (babies)! It's tricky to get a cell phone to focus on them for a video, but OIMB's director, Dr. Amy Moran, captured a stunning video through a microscope. Soon they will be carried by our flow-through water system out to the ocean, where they will drift and grow through several more larval stages before eventually settling out as juvenile crabs.

All nudibranchs are sea slugs, but not all sea slugs are nudibranchs. These two sea slugs, which are nudibranchs, are ๐˜›๐˜ณ...
08/05/2026

All nudibranchs are sea slugs, but not all sea slugs are nudibranchs. These two sea slugs, which are nudibranchs, are ๐˜›๐˜ณ๐˜ช๐˜ฐ๐˜ฑ๐˜ฉ๐˜ข ๐˜ฎ๐˜ข๐˜ค๐˜ถ๐˜ญ๐˜ข๐˜ต๐˜ข, and they are enjoying their lunch. The white crust they are on is a colony of bryozoans, a favored food of ๐˜›๐˜ณ๐˜ช๐˜ฐ๐˜ฑ๐˜ฉ๐˜ข ๐˜ฎ๐˜ข๐˜ค๐˜ถ๐˜ญ๐˜ข๐˜ต๐˜ข. Nudibranch means naked gill, and you can see where the name comes from. The frilly plume on one end of their top side is their gill structure. They also have oral tentacles, which explore surfaces to find food, and other tentacles (rhinophores) used to smell and taste the water. Photos: TMace

07/30/2026

Around the CMLC neighborhood:
Hereโ€™s a great video of a common murre catching a meal at the Charleston docks this afternoon! Video credit: Hunter Conn

07/18/2026

Our salmon tank is back in action! Stop by frequently to watch these Chinook salmon grow. These fish will stay with us until next April or May, when we'll release them into the bay. Thank you Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife!

If a patch of orange-red catches your eye in one of our tanks, it might be ๐˜ž๐˜ข๐˜ต๐˜ฆ๐˜ณ๐˜ด๐˜ช๐˜ฑ๐˜ฐ๐˜ณ๐˜ข ๐˜ด๐˜ถ๐˜ฃ๐˜ต๐˜ฐ๐˜ณ๐˜ฒ๐˜ถ๐˜ข๐˜ต๐˜ข, known as the Red-rus...
07/11/2026

If a patch of orange-red catches your eye in one of our tanks, it might be ๐˜ž๐˜ข๐˜ต๐˜ฆ๐˜ณ๐˜ด๐˜ช๐˜ฑ๐˜ฐ๐˜ณ๐˜ข ๐˜ด๐˜ถ๐˜ฃ๐˜ต๐˜ฐ๐˜ณ๐˜ฒ๐˜ถ๐˜ข๐˜ต๐˜ข, known as the Red-rust Bryozoan. Bryozoans come in different colors and are small, filter-feeding animals that build colonies. A single bryozoan larva, or baby, will settle on a rock, mussel, blade of kelp, piling, etc. It then clones repeatedly, making either a flat, encrusting colony, or for some species like ๐˜ž๐˜ข๐˜ต๐˜ฆ๐˜ณ๐˜ด๐˜ช๐˜ฑ๐˜ฐ๐˜ณ๐˜ข, leafy structures. If you look closely, you can see each individual animal, or zooid, is encased in a small box-like structure. They eat by extending special feeding structures called lophophores into the water to capture tiny food particles.

07/10/2026

Local folks - you're invited to a free talk, "Finger on the Pulse of Change? Lessons from the Coast Lines," by Dr. James Carlton, professor and director emeritus of Williams College-Mystic Seaport. His research focuses on the environmental history of coastal marine ecosystems, including invasions of non-native species, and he is teaching an OIMB weekend workshop on marine bioinvasions this summer. We're so happy that he offered to give a talk while he is in town!

WHEN: Wednesday, July 15 @ 7pm
WHERE: OIMB Boathouse Auditorium, Charleston

Admission is free and everyone is welcome. Hope to see you Wednesday!

(If you're planning to join us, please park on Boat Basin Road and walk to the Boathouse Auditorium. Thank you!)

Address

63531 Boat Basin Road
Charleston, OR
97420

Opening Hours

Wednesday 11am - 5pm
Thursday 11am - 5pm
Friday 11am - 5pm

Telephone

+15413467280

Website

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