Undersea Observatory Tower

The only one of its kind in the Caribbean

View a natural coral reef from our underwater observatory. The only one of its kind in the Caribbean, our air-conditioned Undersea Observatory Tower stands 100 feet offshore. It is a three story tower with the lowest level taking you 15 feet below the surface to an Undersea Observatory where you can view the ever-changing life on a natural coral reef. Enjoy spectacular views of the St. Thomas shoreline and neighboring islands from the top level.

From the Undersea Observatory, you have a unique opportunity to stay dry while viewing fish and other marine creatures as they go about their daily activities on the reef completely unaware of your presence. Marine life here is free to come and go at will. You never know what might swim by – today a barracuda, tomorrow a turtle. Watch large schools of horse-eye jacks and tarpons suspended in the current. Sometimes the tower is surrounded by huge schools of silversides.

See an Ocean Conservancy coral nursery demonstration site and learn how coral nurseries can work to help recover threatened Staghorn and Elkhorn coral species.

Or perhaps you would like to turn things around and be out there with the fish looking in. Then sign up for Sea Trek, the ultimate helmet dive.

The top level of the Tower is home to our reservations desk for all the Activities at Coral World. In addition to spectacular island views at this level, from December through March, you may get lucky and see a humpback whale and her calf breaching or tail or flipper slapping the passage between the Tower and Thatch Cay. Humpback whales migrate to the Caribbean in the fall to breed and calve. In the winter, they begin their migration back to colder waters where they will gorge themselves during the summer.

Explore the Exhibit

Meet our other animals

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