Keep the summer vibe going into the fall by exploring the enormous variety of creatures that live in the ocean “down the shore” at Ocean Fest featuring the Philadelphia Shell Show, Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 18 and 19, at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University. The festival features seashell hunts, shark dissections, live animal shows, sea story readings, an international shell market, and the largest display of shells in the Northeast. Ocean Fest is free with regular museum admission.

Highlights of the activities for both young and old to enjoy include:

• Dissecting a shark and seeing shark specimens.
• Watching live shows featuring live animals from the ocean.
• Sifting through a sandy beach for shells to take home.
• Entering an ocean immersion room and experiencing the sights and sounds of the deep.
• Cheering some speedy snails to victory in the clockwork snail races and meeting their slightly slower live snail counterparts.
• Listening to ocean-themed stories in Outside In.

Ocean Fest is part of the Philadelphia Shell Show, the largest show of its kind in the Northeast. The show features competitive displays by collectors and amateur scientists, as well as a marketplace of thousands of shells, shell jewelry, shell artworks, shell books and more. Tours of the Academy’s Malacology Collection of about 10 million shells and of the Ichthyology Collection of nearly 1.5million fish specimens will be available throughout the day.

Ocean Fest is during regular museum hours, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information, visit ansp.org.

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