During a family vacation to London in September, I found myself with an afternoon unsupervised so I took myself off to the Aquarium! – because you know if there is one around I’ve got to take a look.
Sealife aquarium is a corporate chain sort of thing with facilities around the world. The London one is in a building on the river at Tower Bridge which used to be government offices and now host the London Eye (that massive Ferris wheel that shows up in all the pictures and even Doctor Who. There are three (I think) other Adventure Experiences! In the building for kids and their adults. So I knew going in that it was going to be heavy on the tourist feel and lower on the science and innovation. And from the entrance you’d think schmaltz was going be all there was but it was a lot better than I was expecting. I was pleasantly surprised and delighted by the good parts. The not ideal parts were meh.
The visual theme for the first part is all “underwater facility”so “metal” and bolts and big blue bits of trim. And of course everything is low lighting where the fish are and a little bit more light where they aren’t… which is never ideal for me and my wonky eyes but I’m used to it at this point.
First up was their Atlantic waters exhibits – which had several fish I had never seen (this is going to be a theme in my exploration of aquariums) and part of why I like going to see how other facilities outside of San Francisco and Monterey show their critters.
Probably the best of the tanks was the large main one with tons of sharks and rays. And high on the list of cool was the fact that they put a replica whale skeleton at the bottom of the tank. This is great representation of a very important ecological process. When a whale dies they feed many many other critters for ages, first if /when they float at the surface, later when then sink is what is called Whale Fall and feed the bottom dwellers. When they fall in areas of low activity and life they are helping those in a functional food desert.
Within the exhibit were Cownose and Javanese Rays, and Ocellated Eagle Ray(s), a giant Green Turtle, Zebra shark, Nurse shark and Tawny Nurse shark, and my new favorite a Bowmouth guitarfish, along with both Gray and Blacktip reef sharks, and Sand tiger Sharks. They were all sooo pretty. I’ve been slowly falling in love with sharks so this was perfect.
There were several tanks of Seahorses – who continue to be a pain in the ass to photograph so I could only get a few. Mostly ok shots of the two different types, also new to me: Longsnout and Big-Belly.
The coral reef exhibit was small and nice. And delightfully they had a tank of clown fish (aka Nemo) and their anemone friends. Dory was in a separate tank with their friends – and yes allll the kids were calling them these names.
My least favorite exhibit was the penguins. I love them and these were Gentoos who I have never seen before but the glass was either dirty or scratched or both and half of them were mounting so there wasn’t much going on… the whole thing felt sad. Though they made an effort to make it snowy and Arctic like. They are still cute of course.
There were several places, in the polar area in particular, with virtual animals that you could see moving around – polar bears and belugas in particular- which would have been great for the kids. At the end there was info about the program they are involved with the relocation two Belugas: Little Gray and Little White to a large outdoor pen. https://belugasanctuary.sealifetrust.org/…/the-beluga…/
The Jellyfish exhibit was… meh. Large tanks, one of them two sided with lights that cycled through intense colors to help show off the moon jellies… but the best tank hands down was the one that asked us to guess what kind of jelly it was. It was bits of cut and tied clear plastic that looked a hell of a lot like a jelly fish – so perfect to get the point across about plastic bags being a massive problem. The signs around the conservation theme and what regular folks can do, always good to see.
Overall worth the visit! Plus the view when you exit is pretty cool too!
