St. Lucie County Aquarium

The St. Lucie County Aquarium, home of the Smithsonian Marine Ecosystems Exhibit, is a 5,000-square-foot public aquarium at 420 Seaway Drive in Fort Pierce, created and managed by the county commission and the Smithsonian Marine Station (St. Lucie County Aquarium page).

The St. Lucie County page says the facility holds more than 5,000 gallons of marine life, with six aquarium displays and a touch tank reflecting habitats typically found in the Indian River Lagoon and nearby coastal waters (St. Lucie County Aquarium page). Its stated purpose is educating the public and school groups about the need to preserve the diversity and complexity of Florida's marine environments.

A 2025 Smithsonian Marine Station statement of work says the exhibit, located less than one mile from the Atlantic Ocean on the Indian River Lagoon, serves as the outreach branch of the nearby Smithsonian Marine Station, and lists the station itself at 701 Seaway Drive (Smithsonian statement of work). The Smithsonian's own exhibit page describes the displays as model ecosystems rather than fish tanks (Smithsonian exhibit page).

St. Lucie County lists the Fort Pierce aquarium as open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sunday from noon to 4 p.m., with Monday hours of 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. in February and March only (Aquarium Hours and Rates page).

The Smithsonian exhibit page gives the same Tuesday to Saturday and Sunday hours for the St. Lucie County Aquarium, but describes Mondays differently, listing them as open from January through March (Smithsonian exhibit page).

Both pages list 772-462-3474 for general information at the Fort Pierce aquarium, and the county page spells it out as (FISH) (Aquarium Hours and Rates page). The Smithsonian page adds a separate education programs line, 772-465-3271, and the email SMSEducation@si.edu (Smithsonian exhibit page).

As posted by St. Lucie County on October 22, 2026, admission is $5 for adults and $4 for seniors 55 and older and children 4 to 17 (rates page).

A joint ticket with the county history museum in Fort Pierce costs $8, $6 and $5 for the same three groups, and the Smithsonian posts its own version of each price (Smithsonian exhibit page).

The middle column quotes the St. Lucie County Aquarium Hours and Rates page and the right column the Smithsonian exhibit page; the two list different free ages and different group rates for groups that are not tax exempt. The county page also lists two discounts: Blue Star Museums free admission each year from Armed Forces Day to Labor Day for active-duty military personnel, including the National Guard and Reserves, and their families, and Museums For All entry at $1 per person, limit four per family, for SNAP and EBT recipients (St. Lucie County Aquarium page).

Six living models of Florida marine and estuarine ecosystems fill the St. Lucie County Aquarium, with a Caribbean coral reef model as the largest display, alongside seagrass, mangrove, lagoon hardbottom, nearshore reef and deepwater Oculina coral reef displays (St. Lucie County Aquarium page).

The St. Lucie County page adds several smaller aquarium displays, microscope displays that show the microscopic world, and a touch tank with local marine life, plus QR codes at each model ecosystem that link to a short video led by a Smithsonian educator and an Education Station near the touch tank with self-guided activities and virtual field trip information (St. Lucie County Aquarium page).

The Smithsonian's statement of work names the six habitats in its own words, including an Atlantic coral reef, a red mangrove forest and a seagrass bed, and mentions a local species touch tank, changing interactives, microscope themed exhibits and small aquarium displays (Smithsonian statement of work). The St. Lucie County page calls its largest display a Caribbean coral reef, while the Smithsonian document lists an Atlantic coral reef among its habitats (county page).

The St. Lucie County Aquarium opened in Fort Pierce in November 2001, after the Smithsonian retired the main 3,000-gallon coral reef exhibit at its National Museum of Natural History in Washington (St. Lucie County Aquarium page).

The St. Lucie County page says Smithsonian scientists were the first to put a living model of an Atlantic coral reef ecosystem on public display, and that the Fort Pierce exhibit was created and is managed through a partnership between the St. Lucie County Board of County Commissioners and the Smithsonian Marine Station in Fort Pierce (St. Lucie County Aquarium page).

The 2025 Smithsonian statement of work seeks an education contractor to interpret the exhibit, train public-side volunteers and education interns, run on-site programs for school and community groups and produce signage, working 40 hours a week from Tuesday through Saturday at the St. Lucie County Aquarium or the Smithsonian Marine Station (Smithsonian statement of work).

The St. Lucie County page says the Fort Pierce aquarium is open to school groups for self-guided visits booked with 30 days' notice through SMSEducation@si.edu, and that educators are not leading in-person school group programs (School and Group Programs page).

The fees are quoted from the St. Lucie County School and Group Programs page, which says the seining program includes the education program at the aquarium or a self-guided tour, and that one chaperone or teacher per 25 students is free. Only twenty-five people, students and adults together, may be inside the Fort Pierce building at once, so larger groups rotate. Virtual field trips of around 30 minutes, aligned to Florida State Standards, are booked through the same Education Team email.

The aquarium is at 420 Seaway Drive, Fort Pierce, FL 34949, and the Smithsonian Marine Station sits at 701 Seaway Drive (St. Lucie County Aquarium page; Smithsonian statement of work).

Both the St. Lucie County page and the Smithsonian exhibit page give 420 Seaway Drive and link a map (Smithsonian exhibit page). The St. Lucie County page also runs an events list for the aquarium, with recurring talks and behind-the-scenes tours, so current program times are on that page rather than here (St. Lucie County Aquarium page).

The joint ticket ties the aquarium to the county's history museum, which the county page calls the St. Lucie County History Museum and the Smithsonian page calls the Regional History Center (Aquarium Hours and Rates page; Smithsonian exhibit page). The Fort Pierce places guides on this site cover other Seaway Drive and downtown stops. Last verified: October 22, 2026, for the Fort Pierce aquarium by rereading the St. Lucie County aquarium, hours and rates, and school program pages and the Smithsonian exhibit page and statement of work.