Merlin Entertainments Sea Life Aquariums.

I have visit two SeaLife Aquariums: Bray (Ireland) and Benalmádena (Spain). Both quite small and with very similar style.
I think they are fine for families as a place to spend the day but definitely out of the question for anyone really interested in zoos or aquariums. They don't really have anything special and I find the whole style quite repetitive.
I would still be up to visit more SeaLife Aquariums in the future if I am near any of them and I have a few of them on my bucket list actually (The one in Iceland working as "beluga sanctuary" might be curious to visit in order to see how they have adapt all the area for belugas)
 
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Been to Kelly taltons in NZ before and after it was bought by merlin

I would say Merlin has really improved a lot of aspects of the aquarium, though the same basic animal layout has not changed much (other than the jellyfish, sea horses and the Hauraki Gulf sea adventure). They got rid of the track around the penguins and added a path and some underwater viewing and really changed the walls to look much more like glaciers and ice, then added a bunch of smaller tanks along the way for small southern ocean species. they generally made the place much flasher, fun and gave it a good makeover, would def recommend.
 
I have been to numeral SeaLife Aquariums in Europe and never once liked it. I always make the mistake of hoping to see something unique or discovering a hidden rarity in one of the tanks, but it has never happened. @RatioTile and I went to SeaLife Nagoya in Japan to see their ray collection, only to discover that all rare rays were gone except for the Australian Cownose Ray (Rhinoptera neglecta). Even in such a progressive and high-tech country as Japan, their SeaLife was really disappointing. They often hold the same couple of species in 10 different tanks, just to fill up the tanks. Species diversity is very low. I have been to dozens and dozens of public aquariums worldwide, none of which have as few interesting species as the SeaLife Centres. Staff generally isn't capable of telling what species they have either, at least even worse than in other aquariums. Signage is a nightmare as well. The entrance price is way too high for what you get in return.
 
Sicarius said:
@RatioTile and I went to SeaLife Nagoya in Japan to see their ray collection, only to discover that all rare rays were gone except for the Australian Cownose Ray (Rhinoptera neglecta). Even in such a progressive and high-tech country as Japan, their SeaLife was really disappointing.
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Well first sealife nagoya is nothing more than a legoland extension, and second japan isn't the best in zoological facilities, whether SeaLife or not.
 
aardvark250 said:
Well first sealife nagoya is nothing more than a legoland extension, and second japan isn't the best in zoological facilities, whether SeaLife or not.
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Can you elucidate that? I went to 50+ zoological facilities in Japan including Ueno, Tama, Zoorasia and dozens of aquariums. All of these facilities were professional, some of which level the best parks in Europe. Yes, there are still parts of long-existing parks that need improvement, but that is just as much the case for many zoos in Germany for example. They cannot rebuild everything all at once.
 
Okay so having just got out of SeaLife Istanbul minutes ago I will say that I am not impressed. For context, I have only been to this place once when it was called TurkuaZoo back before it was converted to SL Istanbul. I was pretty impressed with it back then albeit I was just a stupid kid who knew far less about fish than now (not that I am any better with fish now). Another information for context is that I never visited to a Sea Life before. SL Istanbul is not the same place that @devilfish has taken the pictures of anymore (I don’t have too many pictures but I will upload what I have when possible). It looks as if Merlin botched the place. This place felt more childish than what it previously was.

Usually I’d take a jab at how Turkish shopping mall culture treats aquariums and the animals within it as living props and decorations, but seeing most of the statements here match with what I saw today, I am confident to say that the problems I have with SL Istanbul is a Merlin issue.
 
PossumRoach said:
Okay so having just got out of SeaLife Istanbul minutes ago I will say that I am not impressed. For context, I have only been to this place once when it was called TurkuaZoo back before it was converted to SL Istanbul. I was pretty impressed with it back then albeit I was just a stupid kid who knew far less about fish than now (not that I am any better with fish now). Another information for context is that I never visited to a Sea Life before. SL Istanbul is not the same place that @devilfish has taken the pictures of anymore (I don’t have too many pictures but I will upload what I have when possible). It looks as if Merlin botched the place. This place felt more childish than what it previously was.

Usually I’d take a jab at how Turkish shopping mall culture treats aquariums and the animals within it as living props and decorations, but seeing most of the statements here match with what I saw today, I am confident to say that the problems I have with SL Istanbul is a Merlin issue.
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Did you have actual problems with the animal husbandry? Or did you just find the place childish and boring?
 
birdsandbats said:
Did you have actual problems with the animal husbandry? Or did you just find the place childish and boring?
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There were some tanks that had more than five orbicular batfish each and they looked small for the number of orbiculars they held. But the excessive childishness being my main gripe is also true.
 
Australian Sea Lifes are a strange one. They're all pretty homogenous and have a lot of "filler" species, but they have some gems mixed in there too. Sydney's Dugong and hagfish (which I will be seeing very soon!) and Melbourne's Speartooth Shark, Necklace Carpetshark and outstanding native freshwater exhibit.

Can't think of anything much good to say about the Sunshine Coast one though.... They used to have a couple cool exotic freshwater fish, but they are gone now.
 
Have visited a few so far:
London
Birmingham
Chessington (inside the zoo/themepark)
Brighton
Hunstanton (though haven't been since I was a child)

I don't dislike them, and can usually find something of interest in each one; they are very expensive though (and clearly not aimed at childless visitors). However, they do all stick very closely 'On-brand' - it's hard to forget that you are at a SeaLife centre when you're there! I assume this is probably because they are part of Merlin, which is commercial enterprise first and foremost with it's theme-park lines, and commercial enterprises will always want to stay on-brand. Other zoos will also be following their own theming and branding, but as they are usually located at one or two sites, it's a lot less obvious than SeaLife where there are so many sites located all across the world.

The UK ones at least do seem to be trying to bring in something a little bit different at different sites (eg the Sea Otters at Birmingham, Fairy Penguins at Weymouth, leaning into Victorian heritage at Brighton etc)
 
The SEA Life Centre that I've visited to are in LEGOLand. Certainly tons of commercialized LEGO sculptures put inside of those tanks though.

They are okay as far as aquariums are concerned.
 
Visited SEA LIFE Sydney recently, and much to my surprise it was actually quite good!! The collection is great, with some really cool local species (Southern Pygmy Leatherjacket, Eastern Blue Groper, Eastern Kelpfish, Eastern Smooth Boxfish, Southern Pygmy Perch) and some real standout species (Dugong, Broadgilled Hagfish, Narrow Sawfish, Speartooth Shark, Titan Triggerfish). The displays were fairy good (Jurassic Seas is tacky as always though).
 
From my American perspective: I've been to 3, in Arizona, Carlsbad, and Minnesota. There's pretty extreme variance in size, and to a lesser extent quality, throughout just those three. They all have generally fair exhibitry and husbandry, though I agree with other posters here that they have some problems with overstocking tanks or exhibiting animals in inappropriate tank sizes. Minnesota is easily the nicest, best constructed one, but that's entirely because it was bought by Sea Life/Merlin rather than actually opened by them. They simply remodeled an existing facility that was insolvent.

I don't per se have a problem with their existence so long as they maintain strong staff and AZA standards of care, which thus far they have (I don't know of any in the US at least that have lost certification). Arizona for example has some truly excellent husbandry folks that I know well. Even if they're restricted a bit by corporate policy, those individual employees very much prioritize animal husbandry in my view.
 
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snowleopard said:
Exactly 7 days ago I posted an article that discussed Merlin Entertainments possibly selling a few Sea Life aquariums, but here we are with a brand-new one opening up at Legoland in Florida on May 23.

Sea Life aquarium at Legoland Florida reveals opening date
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This is easily the closest together that two American Sea Lifes have ever been - there’s already one in Orlando, so this new one is just 47 miles away in Winter Haven. Florida is also already the US state with the most aquaria lol, the rich get richer I suppose :p
 
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