The Dauphin Island Sea Lab is Alabama's marine education and research center, and its public-facing Estuarium is an excellent aquarium for families and anyone curious about the ecology of the northern Gulf of Mexico. The exhibits are organised around four Gulf Coast habitat types: the Mobile-Tensaw Delta, Mobile Bay, the barrier island coast, and the open Gulf.
Touch tanks let you handle horseshoe crabs and other invertebrates, and the large open-water tanks hold species native to the Gulf — rays, sharks, red snapper, and sea turtles. The facility is small by metropolitan aquarium standards, but the exhibits are well thought out and the staff are often genuine researchers happy to talk about their work. It makes a good rainy-day option and works well with children.