Meet the Sharks That Live Off the Coney Island Boardwalk
An ocean-front aquarium on the Coney Island boardwalk, built around sharks and rays from the water just outside it.
The New York Aquarium sits at 602 Surf Avenue, at the western end of the Coney Island boardwalk, with the beach on one side and the F and Q trains at West 8th Street on the other. Eight exhibits and attractions share the site: Ocean Wonders: Sharks!, Conservation Hall, Spineless, PlayQuarium, Sea Change, the outdoor Sea Cliffs, the Aquatheater and a 4-D Theater. Much of the route is open to the sky, which puts the forecast in the plan.
Doors open at 10:00 AM daily. Through October 31 the last ticket is scanned at 4:00 PM and the gate closes at 5:00 PM, so a four-thirty arrival only buys you the boardwalk. The site is compact. Travel writer Alexandra Charitan spent about an hour here and came away recommending the obvious fix for the crowds: "just get there right when they open."
One admission covers every exhibit and attraction open on the day you visit, the Aquatheater show and the 4-D Theater included. Wild Encounters, the up-close sessions with penguins and sea lions, run April through October and are booked on their own.
Gate prices move between peak and off-peak days on the aquarium's own calendar. The listing below confirms instantly, and the rate shown at checkout is the rate you pay. The aquarium runs rain or shine.
New York Aquarium ticketConey Island, Brooklyn · Direct-entry admission · Instant confirmationaffiliate.klook.comThe sharks from the water outside
Ocean Wonders: Sharks! is the building on the boardwalk side, opened in 2018 and wrapped in thousands of small aluminum panels that move with the wind off the water. Its premise is local. The aquarium counts over 115 marine species inside, 18 of them sharks and rays, and the exhibit is built around the animals that live in the water off Coney Island.
Two rooms carry it. The coral reef tunnel walks you under blacktip reef sharks, zebra sharks and butterflyfish. Canyon's Edge is the deep tank, where sand tiger sharks, sandbar sharks and rough tail stingrays come out of the shadows toward the glass. Strollers have to be parked before you go into this building. The lighting stays low the whole way through, and the route is wheelchair accessible.
The half of the visit that is outdoors
Sea Cliffs runs along the ocean side of the park, open to the wind off the Atlantic. Harbor seals, sea otters, California sea lions and black-footed penguins share the rock work there.
Weather decides this half of the visit. Sea Change is the same animals seen from below, an indoor gallery where they come up to the glass, and in 2022 it became the last part of the park to reopen after Superstorm Sandy. The other indoor halls carry a wet day too: Conservation Hall for the reef tanks and a green moray eel, Spineless for the giant Pacific octopus and the jellies, PlayQuarium for the life-sized kelp forest and a touch pool of local crabs, snails and sea urchins. PlayQuarium is the aquarium's first fully bilingual exhibit, labelled in English and Spanish throughout.
The sea lion show sets the clock
The Aquatheater runs a sea lion show on a posted schedule, and those times move. The current schedule has it at 11:00 AM, 1:30 PM and 4:00 PM, fifteen minutes each, with the last one starting at the same minute as the last entry. The aquarium publishes the day's actual schedule on its site and posts it at the entrance.
The show is built around the working relationship between the sea lions and their trainers. What the animals do in front of the bleachers is what the trainers use day to day to keep them healthy. The bleachers are open to the sky, with misting fans for hot afternoons.
Getting there, and where to put the car
The F and Q stop at West 8th Street on Coney Island. The N and D stop at Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue, a two-block walk east along Surf Avenue, and Stillwell is the accessible station on all four of those lines. The B36 bus runs along Surf Avenue to West 8th Street.
Driving takes more planning than it looks. Parking at 602 Surf Avenue is limited and charges USD 18 up to three hours, USD 25 for three to four hours, and USD 40 past that. In the busy season Surf Avenue is regulated so the only way into the lot is a left turn, which means approaching from Ocean Parkway heading west. Get into the left lane once you cross Sea Breeze Avenue. There is no bus parking.
From November 1 the whole day shifts earlier: doors at 10:00 AM, last entry at 3:30 PM, gate at 4:30 PM. Sea Cliffs stays open through the winter, and the wind coming off the water is part of what the outdoor half is for.
Walk out the gate and the boardwalk is right there, the beach on one side and the rest of Coney Island the other way.