Carolina Beach moving forward on aquarium pier project

CAROLINA BEACH, NC (WWAY) — Carolina Beach visitors may soon have a new place to fish. The Fort Fisher Aquarium is expanding by building a pier.

It’ll be a 1,000-foot long concrete pier complete with educational facilities and fish tanks. The town council approved plans last night to build the pier on Carolina Beach avenue north where the Surf Motel is now.

“Our goal as the town is minimize the cost of that land to the taxpayers and still bring a wonderful feature to the beach, which a state-run, educational fishing pier here would be a huge, huge benefit to our town,” councilman Dan Wilcox said.

The total price tag for the project is about $20 million. The aquarium will pay about $16 million with money from admissions. The town is applying for grants to cover the rest.