Merlin Entertainments Sea Life Aquariums.

Hello, I am vastly curious to know what is the general opinion of the community about the aquarium franchise Sealife. Have you ever visited one?
Do you think they are any good? Too commercial? What do you think about their collections, education, conservation, etc?

 

McDonald’s has its place.

Unfortunately that place is truck stops and airport terminals, not running public aquaria.

 

@CGSwans: I could not wrote it better myself.

 

I've only ever visited Sea Life Birmingham and Blackpool, they're not bad places, but definitely not the best either. The penguins and sea otters at Birmingham are nice, but I don't have a huge amount to say about Blackpool. Both have a few issues with signage, many tanks having wrong or inaccurate signs or even none at all, so writing species names down for a Zoo Life List is a bit difficult compared to other places.

 

I was very impressed with the Sea Life in Orlando Fl when I visited last year. You can read my trip review here: SEA LIFE Orlando visit June 10 2022 [SEA LIFE Orlando]

I don't think it was any more commercial than most aquariums that I have been to. They are not huge places, but the Orlando site packs a lot of exhibits into the area they have. They had lots of learning opportunities for kids and my son really enjoyed the place. They don't tend to have the rarest species, but then with aquariums still wild collecting most of their stock that is not necessarily a bad thing.

 

I must confess that I/we was/were wrong with the McDonals comparison...

...because McDonalds does always label what they have to offer

To be serious: It is the boring concept, that bothers me at the SLCs. It always (or in 99 percent) beginns with a fake glacier and ends with the open ocean. With always (or in 90 percent) the same species - at least in Europe. Not to mention that they often wrongly promote their breeding successes (= mixing up breeding with raising subadult fishes) and dissing other zoos/aquarias who keep dog sharks and their relatives, asserting that those can't be kept in captivity.

 

I have visited the SeaLife Centres in Blackpool, about 20 years ago, and Birmingham, several times, most recently in 2020. I generally agree with @Jambi, their best exhibits are pretty good, but I was not very impressed by the exhibits for the sea otters and penguins at Birmingham. However the Weymouth Centre is a rather different kettle of fish (sorry, I couldn't resist that). It is not a single large building, but an open area with a series of smaller buildings inside. They are not all wonderful by any means, but there is a decent open-air pool for common seals, and outdoor exhibits for otters (ASCOs) and a few Humboldt's penguins and some touch pools too (I didn't go near them, so I can't comment further). The aquariums are again a mixed bag, I liked the freshwater and coldwater marine ones much more than most of the tropical marine ones. But there are 2 star exhibits to gladden any zoo nerd, a nice group of weedy sea dragons, and the breeding group of fairy penguins.These are the only ones in Europe and they have both indoor and outdoor pools. They came from Manly SeaLife Centre in Australia, and I think they may have been bred there.

 

I can't speak for the rest of the locations in the USA, but the Orlando location does not look like that at all. They don't have a glacier or cold area or really an open ocean part to speak of. It is primarily centered around Atlantic and Pacific reef fish, the Everglades swamp, and a large axolotl exhibit area.

 

It seems that some SLCs, specially those that are built after their starting phase, have a slightly different concept. Also those that Merlin bought in the last decades from other institutions. And yes, some have added a few special exhibits (e.g. penguins, otters, sea dragons/sea horses). However, depending on the SLC location, the concept is then mostly a trip from tropical creeks/rainforests to the tropical reef (so in the Asian cities).

 

Fair enough, but I am not sure the criticism should be limited to SLC, many (even most) public aquariums follow a similar pattern and most have similar animals. Some definitely are unique, but by and large many aquariums are quite similar to one another.

 

There are number of aquarium franchises, and SeaLife is without a doubt the best of them. Other franchises such as SeaQuest and Blue Zoo are essentially "roadside aquariums", whereas no one is arguing that SeaLife are at least real aquariums where animals are cared for fine. Most US SeaLife aquariums are AZA-accredited.

The usual argument against SeaLife aquariums, as presented on ZooChat at least, tends to be that they are boring and all the same. I cannot personally comment on this, as the only one I have visited is SeaLife Minnesota, which is notoriously non-SeaLife like, with a significantly larger size that is usual for the franchise, some very unique exhibits, and a couple of rarities. I have yet to visit a "normal" SeaLife aquarium.

 

I have visited four US SeaLifes - Minnesota (which, as noted, is a bit of an outlier, in large part because it wasn't opened as a SeaLife), Kansas City, Arizona, and Michigan. They really are all kind of cookie-cutter, which can make them a bit dull if you visit a lot of aquariums. Most people don't, however, so if you're a family looking for an outing, they hit the spot - they have the highlight animals most people want to see (sharks, octopus, jellies, sea turtle), are kid-friendly, have a fun touch tank, and are small and easily managed in an hour or so, which works well for the attention span of most people. They aren't facilities that I go out of my way to see, but I can understand their appeal to a lot of folks.

 

Isn't SeaLife Sydney the one with the dugong? (Although it looks like that park was bought by SeaLife, not designed by them).

 

In my opinion, Sea Life centres are, for the most part, about as painfully average as an aquarium can get. Rows of tanks with colourful lights and loud music, and very few species of particular interest inhabiting them. There are some nice and large tanks, although riddled with cross-viewing and with little interesting design features. Conservation seems less significant to them than at other zoos and aquariums, and you leave feeling ultimately rather unphased. Whenever I visit a sea life centre, I reflect on an enjoyable day, but not one which stands out much in retrospect, that would have been better spent at a different zoo or aquarium.

That said, I do love Sea Life Brighton, the simplicity of tanks and colourful lighting which I mentioned above all making for a very effective repurposing of a historic building (an aquarium has existed there since 1872, making it the oldest operating stand alone aquarium in the world), although even Brighton is hardly one of the best aquariums that I have ever visited, simply one of the most charming.

 

I think this is my favorite thing I've ever read on this site!

 

Correct on both counts.

 

I’ve visited three: London, Brighton and the one in Chessington. I enjoy them, and I think they overall have a good reputation. Chessington particularly seems to boost particularly good breeding successes from the signage around the place. They also seem to support a lot of conservation work. Will second Brighton being very charming, a former Dolphinarium in the centre of the city with an indoor glass-bottom boat and lovely lighting.

My biggest qualms with them would probably be: they’re very pricey (much cheaper to go to the zoo and probably more to see) and that once you’ve been to one, you could probably say you’ve been to them all. They’re all rather similar and often hold very similar species lists. However, I don’t think this is necessarily a bad thing. I would rather they held species they can sustainably source and/or have breeding successes with than just recklessly import whatever they can get their hands on..

Overall, I have a positive opinion of them, more so in regard to their conservation work, breeding and place as rescue/rehab facilities than their actual place as a venue, of which they’re a bit pricey and samey.

 

I have visited 10 Sea Life Aquariums in 4 countries. Each is essentially a 45-minute visit and in truth they are not very memorable zoo stops. However, generally speaking, the ones I've seen in Europe have been more expansive than the small American locations.

My visits:

Sea Life Arizona (2011)
Sea Life Minnesota (2014)
Sea Life Grapevine - Texas (2015)
Sea Life Carlsbad - California (2017)
Sea Life Michigan (2018)
Sea Life Scheveningen - Netherlands (2019) - Humboldt Penguins and Small-clawed Otters
Sea Life Blankenberge - Belgium (2019) - California Sea Lions, Humboldt Penguins and Small-clawed Otters
Sea Life Konigswinter - Germany (2019)
Sea Life Oberhausen - Germany (2019) - Small-clawed Otters
Sea Life Hannover - Germany (2019) - has a Tropical House

The aquarium tanks are generally modern, sleek, clean, and appealing for families with young children. The establishments are full of bright colours and are obviously popular because there are almost 50 of them worldwide. The downside is that admission prices are far too expensive and many of the buildings are very similar. So, if you happen to be a zoo nerd who visits hundreds of facilities, then the Sea Life aquariums can all blend together after a while. It's nice to see a few exceptions, such as Hannover with its Tropical House and some of the Sea Life aquariums that have outdoor sections. Every single one I've been to has been very busy, and there is often a lot of signs about conservation of aquatic life, so they aren't as bad as many folks make them out to be.

 

I just realized that one could say I've visited 12 Sea Life Aquariums in 5 different countries. I toured the Melbourne and Sydney establishments in 2007, although that was a few years before the aquariums were rebranded as Sea Life facilities.

 

And they are both very, very different now (for the worse, in my view).