The North Carolina Aquariums regularly return animals to their native environments. If the animal is on loan from a cooperative zoo or aquarium, it is returned to its home facility.

Animals are released or returned when they outgrow their habitat space, when populations increase beyond a safe number, or when the animal has recovered from an illness or injury.

A loggerhead sea turtle is wheeled to awaiting US Coast Guard boat prior to release

The most often released animals are sharks and sea turtles. Sharks and sea turtles are the most likely candidates to outgrow their habitat space and require release into their natural environments.

As part of the Marine Mammal Stranding Network and the North Carolina Sea Turtle Stranding and Salvage Network, the Aquariums treat, house and release numerous sea turtles each year.

The U.S. Coast Guard is sometimes called on to assist the Aquariums in transporting animals offshore for release. The Aquariums also release freshwater turtles, snakes, fish and other specimens.

Occasionally, animals reproduce at the Aquariums. Over the years, whelks, seahorses, horseshoe crabs and other animals have given birth. The Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores got a slippery surprise late one summer, when its northern water snake in the outdoor "Snake" exhibit gave birth to 27 offspring.

Although water snakes are not venomous, their markings commonly result in their being mistaken for venomous cottonmouths and copperheads and they are often killed unnecessarily. In North Carolina, they are now listed as an animal of "special concern."