Texas State Aquarium

The aquarium took twenty years of local fundraising. The Junior League of Corpus Christi and the Jaycees formed a society to build one in 1969; the Legislature named the project the official aquarium of Texas in 1985, though it has never been state-funded; the association bought 6.3 acres on the southern tip of Corpus Christi Beach in 1986; and the Gulf building opened on July 6, 1990, with former President Bush speaking on the lawn. The founders' plan was always two halves, the Gulf and the Caribbean Sea. The second half, Caribbean Journey, opened in 2017 and doubled the aquarium's size, with a 400,000-gallon shark exhibit seen through a long acrylic window and a tunnel, a jungle aviary and a reef.

What sets it apart from a tank show is the work done out of sight. The aquarium became a federally permitted rehabilitation facility in 1993, and its Wildlife Rescue Center is now the largest coastal wildlife rescue facility in Texas, treating stranded sea turtles, marine mammals and shorebirds with the aim of putting them back in the Gulf. Turtle Bend, opened in 1995, began with several of the center's rehabilitated sea turtles.

Daily programs run through the day: dolphins, sea turtles, sharks, stingrays and river otters. The aquarium is cashless, and service animals are allowed but emotional support animals are not. It sits beside the USS Lexington on North Beach.