Coral World Ocean Park (website) is an ocean themed eco park in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands. It is located by the Coki Bay near the Coki Point Beach with beautiful clear water. The park is quite open, located by the ocean. There are several exhibits in the park. There are also additional experiences that visitors can sign up for. We signed up for the Sea Lion Swim. Here is my story about my sea lion swim experience.
Upon arrival, we were greeted by the resident iguanas. There were all sizes of iguanas. Some were really huge (we saw one that was about three feet from nose to tail)! There is a sign by the entrance warning visitors not to feed the iguanas.
The center of the park is surrounded by a touch pool, a theater, and a stingray pool. I saw some cute fish in the touch pool and I touched the starfish. The starfish is softish with bumps on it. We also saw a Macaw show-and-tell in the theater. I learned that palm oil is destroying the habitats of these birds because humans cut down the native forests to plant palm trees to harvest palm oil for food additives, for example, Nutella.
The stingrays seemed happy, swimming around in their pool. Next to the stingray pool, down a flight of stairs, there is also a turtle pool. I learned that there are several different sea turtles in the Caribbean. The species are Green Turtle, Leatherback Turtle, Hawksbill Turtle, and Loggerhead Turtle. These sea turtles are endangered.
By the turtle pool, across a bridge, there is the observatory tower in the middle of the beautiful clear blue ocean. From the observatory tower I saw the beautiful coastline and Coki beach near by.
There is also a turtle encounter pool, where I saw some visitors getting into the pool with the sea turtle. I would like to try the sea turtle encounter the next time we visit.
I liked the Caribbean Reef Encounter. We were able to observe some beautiful reef formations and ocean life indoors, and right up close. There are many colorful and funny looking fish living among the reef. A stingray kept showing off its tummy and another was happily taking a sand bath.
There are signs in the park describing the history of the Virgin Islands and how human activities affect coral reefs.
It is sad to think that human activities threaten the lives of other residents on the earth. I hope I am always able to see birds flying among the trees and to snorkel with beautiful fish between reefs in the clear ocean. Let’s all do our part to help!
Coral World Ocean Park
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