Gulf Specimen Aquarium

Positive experience: A little overpriced and underwhelming for what you pay for. The touch tanks are cool but the tanks with the sharks looks awfully small. They do not offer military discount and the gift shop is extremely over priced. A book that's $15 was $30 in their store.

Positive experience: For such a small community this is a nice place to stop for the day with your family. Surprising amount of tanks with a variety of sea life. Could not find stumpy the octopus, he’s good at hiding!

Fantastic experience: This place is a gem. So much cool and educational stuff to see and do. Very engaging and deeply concerned with conservation and education. The kids and adults enjoyed our visit immensely and we'll be back next time we're in town. Cannot recommend highly enough.

Fantastic experience: This is a great place to bring your family. We come here every couple of years with our church youth group. It is a great place of learning and seeing marine specimens that you may never see anywhere else. The staff are always very friendly and helpful.

Negative experience: Not a very wheelchair friendly place. Took my disabled sister there and could not see everything because some things was not wheelchair accessible. Other than that it was ok. If you have someone in your group that is in a wheelchair just know they will not have access to everything in the aquarium.

Fantastic experience: Our granddaughter was able to attend one week of their summer camp. She had a blast and the staff was wonderful!

Fantastic experience: Took the grandkids here and was not disappointed!! They loved the entire place! Catching crabs in the touch areas and watching them feed peaches the stingray were the highlights.

Fantastic experience: We drove over from St George and it was well worth the trip! Tons of touch tanks that my 3 year old really enjoyed. Lots to see and do and so many beautiful animals!

Fantastic experience: Great place to visit with your Grands. Mine always love going and particularly love the touch tanks as well as watching when they feed the sharks.

Fantastic experience: Loved our tour! Definitely worth paying for the tour. Our guide was very informative. You could tell she really loves her job and nature/marine life. We had 4 kids and 4 adults in our group. Everyone was very happy with the visit to the aquarium.

Fantastic experience: Awesome place, definitely check out the deep ocean room while you're there.

Positive experience: It's a decent rainy day option. Not many of those on the forgotten coast. Kind of expensive though.

Positive experience: Neat for kids. They have a lot of interactive aquatic tanks. Grandkids age 8 to 3 loved it.

Fantastic experience: It showed the staff truly enjoyed caring for the animals.

Fantastic experience: Bailey was a great educator about all the different aquatic creatures. I hate that the Doge spending cuts are affecting educational places like this. This aquarium is worthy of any funding that is available.

Positive experience: Small family friendly place. They have a few tanks that allow you to touch and hold the animals (crabs, starfish, clams etc). They have scheduled Nurse Shark feedings that are fun to watch. Educational information is posted throughout the aquarium and such a fun gift shop.

Fantastic experience: We took our 1 year old for his first visit to the Gulf Specimen Marine Lab in Panacea and it was great! There has been a lot of additions since the last time I visited (over 10 years ago). We got to watch the Nurse sharks being fed too! We really enjoyed looking at the different exhibits and especially the touch tanks! If you have not been, it is definitely worth checking out!

Fantastic experience: This place is perfect for families. It is small, but the staff is so knowledgeable about all the sea animals/creatures they have on display. They are doing incredible work with endangered sea turtles. For being a part of FSU, we love to support them any and every time we are down there. We love the touch tanks, they are nice and low for the littles, they even have step stools for them if they are still too short!

Fantastic experience: Had the most amazing time. Got to be there when they fed the sea turtles!! Loved everything about it!!

Fantastic experience: My fiancé and I visited over the weekend. It was busy there, but there are a lot of cool things to see like the sharks and stingray. You are able to touch starfish and small creatures, and it gives you more appreciation for marine life. A fun experience.

Fantastic experience: We liked it as adults, kids will definitely like it. Lots to look at and touch, we even got to see them feed their sting ray Peaches! It was fun.

Fantastic experience: A Hidden Gem with a Huge Heart! The Gulf Specimen Marine Lab in Panacea, FL is an absolute treasure! This small, charming aquarium is perfect for all ages. It has interactive touch tanks where you can get hands-on with sea stars, horseshoe crabs, and other fascinating marine life. Every exhibit is up close and personal — you truly feel connected to the ocean world here! What makes this place extra special is the incredible rescue and rehab work they do. Last year, they saved a massive sea turtle with punctured lungs — the kind of injury that would’ve been fatal in the wild. Thanks to the skilled care and surgery from the team here, that turtle got a second chance. You can really tell this place runs on love, passion, and a mission to protect marine life. Highly recommend stopping by if you’re in the area — it’s educational, inspiring, and absolutely worth supporting.

Fantastic experience: Very fun! So many touchable exhibits which let you hold urchins, snails, starfish and more! The staff are very educated, sweet and enthusiastic! A must see in Panacea! Everything is wheelchair accessible and there is plenty of parking. No food available, but there are 2 nice restaurants within walking distance!

Fantastic experience: Marine rescue aquarium. The volunteer staff help rescue and rehabilitate gulf marine animals for release. Some seriously injured animals who are too injured to be released are used as educational mascots to teach people about fishing and boating safety. There is also an aquarium of common marine wildlife where kids and come view and even handle some small marine wildlife in an educational and interactive way

Fantastic experience: Fun and educational. In a beautiful area near the water.

Fantastic experience: My kids love this place. It's very educational.

Fantastic experience: Went here on a school trip with my son. This place is awesome! There was so much to learn here and the touch tanks are really amazing!

Fantastic experience: A very nice place, kind people, and I love how they rescue these sea life! Very kid friendly and touch tanks are amazing! My family and I go there every time we are here for vacation! Would recommend fun for all ages!

Fantastic experience: Great place to visit and learn about the gulf’s marine life. I’ve been there many times and have always enjoyed learning new things.

Fantastic experience: Love this aquarium...my family visits around 2x a year. We're from North Carolina. We love seeing what turtles are in rehabilitation.

Fantastic experience: Kids had a good time, a nice break while on a beach vacation. Great moment for education and conservation.

Negative experience: Terrible place, it made me extremely sad for the animals as you can see them being mistreated live. The tanks are dirty and extremely small, the touch tanks are not supervised at all and you can witness anyone hurting the fishes and other living creatures, kids were having fun torturing the poor pufferfish in the horseshoe crab tank, ironically a “touch tank” but not for them. Anyone who knows a little bit about marine life would see that this place needs to be shut down immediately..

Positive experience: Great little stop on our way to our hotel. Especially like that you can touch a lot of the crabs and starfish

Fantastic experience: Definitely a fun place to visit. We were able to touch some aquatic life. Self guided tour was nice to go at your own pace. Really cool huge aquatic replicas throughout.

Fantastic experience: Great place with a lot of information! They have some black history in there as well which I loved.

Fantastic experience: This place is very quaint and very cute. We’ve been a few times and they always have something a little different each time we go. Our favorite is the sea turtle. She’s blind due to a boating accident, so she remains at this sanctuary for the rest of her life. The touch tanks are really neat too. I’ve attended to feeding of the sharks, which was really cool. They have their own story too! Definitely check this place out!

Fantastic experience: HIGHLY recommend checking this place out and supporting a great organization!

Fantastic experience: Our first time visiting and we loved it! My kiddo loved the touch tanks. Such a great place for all ages. Definitely be back telling our friends and family❤️

Fantastic experience: We had an absolute blast here. Very educational and sensory friendly

Fantastic experience: Best field trip ever was all the kids had to say. Absolutely a hidden gem. Loved the guided tour and all the educational aspects as well as the uniqueness. The touch pools were so fun and even the look only pools were very cool to see. The dock and marsh were fantastic and the learning never stopped but neither did the fun. It was a shame we had to leave, but we definitely checked out the gift shope where we adopted Artemis and hopefully she'll be rehabbed and released soon. Thanks so much to all the staff for such a wonderful day!

Negative experience: Enclosures are way too small for the sharks and big rays. One ray was causing the other to bleed during the feeding as it was frenzied. Many tanks were dirty and had no habitat to them, just concrete. If you don't have the funds or staff to do something properly, relocate the animals. Research and education should not come at the expense of animal care and treatment. The other tanks for smaller fish and animals were spaced well. The ray feeding attendant was great at her speech and friendly, as were other staff. Good gift shop and good information around the facility about the importance of preservation.

Fantastic experience: It's a fun little place. We got to watch them feed some eel and a turtle. It's cool that they have some touch tanks. I would go again. Definitely a kid friendly place.

Fantastic experience: They do a great job presenting different marine life species. Enjoyed our visit will go back, and definitely worth seeing if your visiting the area.

Fantastic experience: We really enjoyed our visit today. There was so much to see and do. We were able to see the feeding of a ray and the nurse sharks which was really fascinating and informative. Loved the hands on and all ages in our party happily got there hands wet. Highly recommend and actually priced right which these days is most unusual.

Negative experience: What a waste of money...........do not recommend. Take your kids to The beach. Or Wakulla Springs.

Fantastic experience: When we visit Alligator Point every year this is a must do in the area. Love the staff and the mission here and happy to support such a great organization!

Fantastic experience: This is the most unique aquarium I’ve ever been to! I love the up close and personal exhibits. It was cool to be able to look into the tanks. We were there during the shark and stingray feedings. This was a very memorable experience and our kids loved it!! The staff was very friendly and knowledgeable. Highly, highly recommend this aquarium

Fantastic experience: Gulf Specimen Aquarium is the Perfect place for a Sunday afternoon playdate! So many interesting exhibits and hands-on activities to keep young minds engaged. We'll be back very soon!

Fantastic experience: Hidden gem in Northwest Florida! I have lived in the area for 3 years and was pleasantly surprised by the resources available to educators. They have the capacity to accommodate large school groups, also offering various professional development opportunities across grade levels.

Fantastic experience: Amazing little aquarium tucked away in a lovely area. A plethora of sea creatures that you can touch and see up close. Facility is well maintained but the bathrooms are really cramped.

Fantastic experience: The marine lab has grown so much since I visited years ago! It was a great experience, and I look forward to taking students there to feed the sharks and pull seine nets to look for critters.

Fantastic experience: Nice little place to view local sea life. Turtles were put up off site due to the cold weather. They had just got power back from the ice storm 2 days ago.

Fantastic experience: Very impressed with the facilities & attentive care given. The touch tanks are amazing and we could have spent the entire day there. The animals are well cared for and enjoyed interacting with us which was quite magical. A hidden treasure, for sure.

Fantastic experience: My family has been coming here for over 30 years. We come almost every year. It's a great place for children to learn. It's certainly well worth the visit.

Positive experience: This place was okay. It seemed very run down despite having an interesting background. You get to touch a lot of interesting sea creatures. And you can see the sharks being fed which is an interesting experience as well! However, it's not a very long experience as you can see the whole thing in about 30 minutes or less. If you are bored and have time to kill, it's a very good adventure.

Fantastic experience: Every visit to Gulf Specimen we learn something new. Recently- updated and enhanced signage is attractive and informative. The science is well integrated and clearly a focus. If slightly eerie and bizarre is your thing, be sure to check out the picklearium!

Fantastic experience: Lots of fun for small children to touch things they wouldn't normally see.

Fantastic experience: This was a total surprise and so enjoyed all the exhibits! The staff are super nice too!

Fantastic experience: This place is fantastic! You get to hold and touch a wide variety of sea life. They also do wonderful rehab for injured sea turtles, sharks and other sea life.

Fantastic experience: This aquarium was a self guided tour of a small specimen aquarium. It was a highly educational experience. Get ready to roll up your sleeves for the touch tanks. A lot of their exhibits are hands on. If you are there in mid afternoon (3pm) you may get to see some of them fed.

Fantastic experience: We love this place!! The staff, the animals, everything they stand for!!

Positive experience: It was fun, they currently have two sea turtles, so that was cool to see. The touch exhibits are fun. Overall it was a fun time.

Fantastic experience: I took ZERO pictures because everything was SO fascinating. The touch aquariums were so neat. The giant sting ray 4hat floops up to say hi is adorable. Holding a starfish, sea pork, a sea cucumber, clams, giant conches (they feel like chewed up chewing gum!) And grrting to see giant sea turtles up close. I could have stayed there all day!

Fantastic experience: I was worried that it would be on the small side to justify a long drive but this place delivered! Took our time and really enjoyed every exhibit fully and it made for a great afternoon. The kids had a blast and wanted to come back as soon as we can.

Positive experience: Really enjoyed our visit. Saving injured sea turtles and other marine wildlife is a noble quest.

Positive experience: Overall a good place to take kids but I am a little disappointed there isn’t more to see. Only a hand full of touch tanks you can interact with. The rest is look only. For the price I left a little disappointed.

Fantastic experience: We stopped by while in town visiting family. We spent over an hour checking out all the sea life. Our kids loved checking out the touch tank. Such a gem in this little town!

Fantastic experience: A great visit! The touch tanks were a huge hit and we saw a feeding of the shark tank! We were able to see a rescue turtle that was in rehab, So glad we stopped by!

Fantastic experience: Our guide was very informative and super patient with our group of 13! It was very fun for the children as well as the adults! I would definitely visit again!

Fantastic experience: Please folks, if you can get out here and show this place some love ❤️. They are in desperate need if financial help! They also have a huge turtle they're nursing back to health. They rescued her 2 weeks ago and cab be adopted for $20. They also are in desperate need of fans!! The kids love it here as they have some areas that they can actually touch certain living sea creatures. Sharks, fish, eels, shrimp, and like I said a very huge turtle who needs adopting ❤️

Fantastic experience: Such a family friendly place. You get to see all types of marine life native to Florida. You get to also touch starfish, crabs, and other animals. See nursing sharks, groupers,and turtles.

Positive experience: Great place. We went on a Tuesday and had lots of fun. Lots of stuff to see and do. Would recommend.

Fantastic experience: It is a very small place, but it is super fun for kids. The touch tanks were a hit for everyone. We enjoyed watching the sharks and the sea turtle being fed. It's a fun 1 to 1 1/2 adventure!

Fantastic experience: Nice little aquarium with a lot of touch tanks. Kids will enjoy having a lot of different sea creatures to interact with. The non-touch tanks are also open topped, so you might want to keep a watchful eye on younger children. You would not want your children sticking their fingers in the trigger fish tank. It is clearly labeled and the staff mark the non-touch tanks on the brochure they hand you at entry, but anyone who has small child knows they don't always listen. There are a lot of staff inside the buildings that can tell you about any of the creatures in the tanks and they have designated feeding times for different creatures on different days.

Fantastic experience: We enjoyed the visit. Some tanks were touch tanks and some were for looking only.

Fantastic experience: We had such a great time. While this Aquarium is very small you get a much more personal experience. We absolutely live supporting a smaller Aquarium out there making a difference!

Fantastic experience: Me and my girlfriend had a great experience here the worker there wasn’t able to catch her name was working by herself that day was amazing and very nice. Definitely recommend this place if you wanna do something different. Don’t forget to go see the blind loggerhead in the back she’s very social.

Fantastic experience: Lovely little interactive aquarium where they have several touch pools! Great place for kids! The staff are very helpful and informative. Lots of places to take some fun photos!

Fantastic experience: Awesome aquarium. Not your average commercialized aquarium. Very reasonably priced. It's our 4 time being here,the kids love the hands-on sections.

Fantastic experience: A lovely and plentiful aquarium with helpful and amazing staff, volunteers and people! I had a fun time learning about all of the aquatic life here. The ability to have touch tanks makes it 100x better and more personal when interacting with each specimen. The gift shop is also a great place to get a souvenir when visiting from out of state!!

Fantastic experience: This is a hidden gem! Loved seeing all the different species of sea life. Things I have never heard of.

Fantastic experience: Great little aquarium with lots of touch tanks and cool, local animals and fish.

Fantastic experience: Was a nice place to take your girl and family to touch some cool florida forgotten aquatic life. And a nice place to see some of Florida's cherished sea life. Also, you can see rescued sea turtles and see them getting medical help as one comes in that needs medical attention.

Fantastic experience: Great place to visit and show kids a taste of the water life. There are touch tanks for kids and adults. Self guided. Definitely worth a trip to see if you're close by.

Fantastic experience: Our family really enjoyed this aquarium. We learned a lot, the staff was extremely helpful. I would love to see the animals in more enriching/larger tanks someday, I know that’s a big expense. The animals seem well taken care of and I love that many of them were rescued. The sea turtle was my favorite!

Positive experience: My son and I went here and had a good day. Touch tanks were a hit. Lots of cool things to pick up and look at. Not a crazy amount of things to see but worth a stop in.

Positive experience: My husband I are staying on St. George Island for the winter and decided to visit here for a day. It is a great place to visit if you have children; lots to see and touch. We enjoyed our time there but it is really geared towards kids. We had hoped to eat at one of the lovely restaurants in the area afterwards but they are all closed on Mondays.

Positive experience: Visited this place years ago and it was wonderful, the second visit i am not so sure. Genuinely too many animals in kiddie pool sized tanks at times, especially the sharks. And a lot of dead fish as well. The touch tanks had a lot of dead fish, and there was also way less diversity in the animals than the first time i visited. The concrete exhibits also aren’t very appealing. If you do not have the funds to properly care the animals, please relocate them.

Fantastic experience: I've seen the signs for this place on the highway and always wanted to stop. I happened to have my family with me, so the other day, we finally made it. There was more here than I was expecting. A lot of neat tanks are full of sea creatures. They have tanks where you can touch some of the sea life. Totally worth it and a great way to spend an afternoon.

Fantastic experience: Absolutely amazing. What a great place. I think I enjoyed the hands on tanks more than my kids

Fantastic experience: This is a very interesting place with a ton of exhibits and open tanks. Lots of cool stuff here

Fantastic experience: Had an awesome time today here at Gulf Specimen Lab! Was shocked by how much there was to look at here, and my expectations were blown away. If you’re local to the surrounding areas, I recommend getting a members pass because they hold events here, and different activities for the Family to enjoy! Me and my grandmother had such a fun time learning about all the different little critters that live right next-door to us in our lovely ocean❤️ along with all the fun activities, we learned that this is a rehabilitation center. Most of these animals are unable to return to the wild due to health problems, and this staff does an amazing job at making sure All their needs are met! I love the “kill two birds with one stone” idea, Rehabilitating these lovely animals while also teaching the public about ocean life!!! If you Happen to be in the area, it is well worth the drive to check this place out!!!!

Positive experience: Very interesting local aquarium. Some tanks were touch tanks. The variety of fish was representative of local fish. We were able to see the feeding of the Loggerhead turtle, which was amazing.

Fantastic experience: What an awesome aquarium!! In Panacea from Tallahassee, the $15 admission was more than worth it to see all the incredible exhibits here at Gulf Specimen. Everything from a huge amount of touch tanks with starfish and horseshoe crabs to nursing sharks and a sea turtle on display. A great way to spend an hour or so, especially if you may have kids in tow. Would definitely recommend!!

Fantastic experience: It was so much fun and very educational.

Fantastic experience: I stumbled on this place by accident and so glad I did! It is within walking distance of the RV park we are staying in. It is non profit, so you will not see all the high tech here. However, it has many pools for viewing different species of sealife. They also have several pool allowing you to handle different species. I discovered many of their sea animals are sent to zoos, wildlife parks and universities for aquatic studies. This is a wonderful place to spend an afternoon and learn about sealife in the Gulf.

Fantastic experience: Haven't been here is years but was excited to revisit. The place did not disappoint! Very interesting displays, especially the Picklearium. I even learned some things, too

Fantastic experience: Very nice aquarium and lots of touch pools available. Lots of things to look at. Staff were very friendly and helpful. Lots of things you can touch and pick up. Very kid friendly

Positive experience: Very fun experience! Lots of cool exhibits and info, as well as creatures to handle! My favorite was the nurse sharks and deep sea exhibit! It is indoors mostly but it is all open to the outside so it will still be HOT on hot days, bring water!!

Fantastic experience: Very cool! Love it and will be back for sure!!! Thank you for doing what you do to help the animals in your area! Thank you for an amazing, fun experience. We took our (old teens) and ourselves the first day so we could know what to look out for! We came and learned more than I had planned.