National Sealife Centre, Birmingham

National Sealife Centre, Birmingham
27-03-2008

Can anyone tell me about the history, however brief that seems to be, of the Birmingham Sealife Centre? When did it open? How did it become the national headquarters for the chain when it is the furthest from the sea?

This Easter saw the opening of "Amazon Attacks" there. This is a small exhibition of potentially harmful species from that area of South America. So there are Red-bellied Piranhas, an Impressive Electric Eel, Marine Toad, a Poison Dart Frog exhibit, Goliath Bird-eating Spider.... Pretty run-of the-mill stuff really.

Until 6th April there is also a temporary exhibit of, and handling sessions with, various other reptiles, amphibians and invetebrates. These include a young Dwarf Caiman, young Green Anacondas, Horned Frog, Common Boa, Burmese Python, Green Iguana, Red-footed Tortoise etc.

Despite being perhaps the best Sealife Centre in the country, its still a bit steep at £16.50 a head for adults. That didn't deter folks from queing for an hour and three quarters in the snow over the Easter weekend.

There are plans later in the year for a new exhibition of fresh-water turtles.

27-03-2008

I have nothing good to say about this chain, although they may be owned by a different company from the time I was involved with them. The 'national' Sealife centre opened while the London Aquarium was already being constructed, so that may have had something to do with it, although the london aquarium at least at the time of its opening was quite a different standard of facility from anything in the sealife group, then owned by Vardon attractions. There was much fanfare when the Birmingham centre opened, I seem to remember them having some large halibut and other rarely-seem fish, I think the halibut both died within a very short space of time. I know now many of the centres are diversify into reptiles, otters and in some cases penguins, although they are all mostly unsuitable as they tend to be built on very small plots of land. Does the Birmingham centre keep its otters indoors, or do they have access to fresh air?

There is a case for a network of top-grade marine facilities around the coast: 'Sealife' isn't it. They claim to rescue and release many marine species but they consume vastly more. The gweek seal sanctuary wasn't always owned by this company, and there are similar excellent sanctuaries at skegness, and mablethorpe. There are plenty of more scientific aquaria in the UK now and I hope as BIAZA bring more of these in and EAZA become more involved then the Sealife centres will be excluded from these associations until they improve.

The difficulty right now is that people are less bothered about high mortality rates and disease in animals we routinely kill and eat in our daily lives, wheras mammals or birds dying at zoos can often draw stinging criticism if the zoo was percieved to be at fault.

Much better to avoid the uber-marketed, commercial leisure aquaria and head to smaller, conservation-based ones.