Coral World was inaugurated in the 1970s. It has been one of St. Tomas' most important tourist attractions since then. In the 1990s, world boxing champion Julian Jackson, the third boxer from the Virgin Islands to become a world champion and a big celebrity in St. Thomas, was hired as a worker, to attract more tourists to the site.
On September of 1998, workers at Coral World began to breed seahorses. In 2000, the place was awarded the EPA Environmental Quality Award, and on January 10, 2001, the site became the first place in history to perform an underwater wedding using the Sea trekkin technology, when Chritina Peace and John Beck exchanged wedding vows there.