Kalaw
Well-Known Member
Yesterday, I visited Sea Life Weymouth for the first time. This is a collection that I have wanted to visit for quite some time, ever since my childhood hobby of collecting zoo leaflets from ticket offices and information centres had me discovering the collection's map, and subsequently its rather interesting design - the fact that it is an aquarium, yet mostly outdoors.
Recently, with a growing interest in seeing rarer species, I ended up with further reason to visit, after realising that the collection is home to Europe's only Little Blue Penguins, along with another very interesting and long-awaited target species of mine, the Weedy Sea Dragon.
For a variety of reasons, I opted to travel by train, which led to an arrival in Weymouth at around midday, a lunch of fish and chips on the city's very attractive seafront, and then a half-an-hour stroll which meant we arrived at the collection at around 13:15. The aquarium is situated within the Lodmoor Country Park, and is just one street crossing away from the sea, which makes for a very attractive setting indeed.
Unfortunately, I don't have a species list, so this will be less of a walkthrough-type account, and more of an exhibit-by-exhibit overview of the collection.
Seahorse Nursery: Right in front of the entrance is this small building featuring four smaller tanks for seahorses and their relatives. The highlights were the Weedy Sea Dragons, bizarre Australian fish known for their ability to camouflage among kelp - one thing that surprised me was how many Weymouth held, as I counted no less than twelve, although there may have been more, within a surprisingly large tank for the species in question. All of the tanks in this area are well-decorated, with broken mussel shells along the floor, although I couldn't help but wish that real kelp was used other than what I assume was a plastic lookalike. Razorfish, Pot-bellied Seahorse and Longsnouted Seahorse were also present. There was also a very large tank for larger fish, which featured as its highlight a stupendously large Green Moray - I had no idea that the species could grow so big!
Rockpool: Like many sea life centres, Weymouth has a rockpool in which you can touch starfish among other creatures of our local waters. This one stood out to me for two reasons - the first was the size of it, with many interconnected tanks and a walkway at the back which allowed visitors to climb along rocks within the water, and the second was the presence of a very large and impressive European Spider Crab. I hadn't realised that the species grew to such sizes, and was very much impressed.
Shipwreck: A fairly random assortment of smaller marine creatures, presumably placed within the same building for no other reason than there being nowhere else to put them. However, the species in here are very interesting, and for that reason, this was one of the highlights of my visit. It was wonderful to see Common Octopus again, a species that, with how scarcely I visit aquaria these days, I do not see near often enough. The Red Lionfish and Humpback Grouper tank was also signed as having no less than three species of pufferfish, an impressive variety, although I couldn't see any.
The two real highlights, however, were the Bearded Ghoul and Peacock Mantis Shrimp. The former is a species of stonefish held at just three other European zoos according to ZTL (which already listed Weymouth as a holder, although no source had been provided, hence I have now added one), which was my first time encountering any species from that subfamily, although I found that it bared a much closer resemblance to the closely related scorpionfish, which I had seen elsewhere - only much bigger! Besides the ghoul was a much smaller and differently coloured fish that was fairly similar in appearance - possibly just a young ghoul, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was a scorpionfish of some description. The mantis shrimp was even better, however. I have wanted to see one since childhood, but had always assumed they were too difficult to keep in captivity, until being proven wrong last year by the discovery of a photo of one at Plymouth in the gallery last year. Even still, I was in awe at finally seeing one, and was caught completely by surprise by it, not knowing that they were held by the collection. At first, it was just a pair of eyes peering out of a hollow rock in the centre of their tank, but later in the day, the shrimp ventured outdoors, and I was caught somewhat off guard by the size of it, the disproportion of its body, and its namesake peacock-like markings on its tail. The shrimp climbed the side of the tank and then, at remarkable speeds, presumably using its famous club-like claw to propel itself, moved back into the tank, so fast that I almost thought I had imagined it. A truly special encounter.
Humboldt Penguins: The Humboldt Penguin enclosure at Weymouth was a major disappointment, not seeming to offer enough land space or pool depth for the animals. I feel as though Weymouth should take advantage of its outdoor design to focus heavily on marine mammals and seabirds, as on top of this mediocrity, the seal and Little Blue Penguin enclosures were, although not bad, thoroughly average.
Seal Harbour: Four Harbour Seals (two of which being rescues) inhabit a fairly standard pinniped pool. The main part of the pool is actually of a fairly impressive depth, with three underwater viewing panels, one of which being of a semi-circle shape within the tank, offering decent views into the pool - in terms of surface area, however, it seemed to be a little small. That said, the seals were very entertaining, and despite being relatively commonplace in zoos, I probably spent more time admiring them than any other animal at the collection, simply due to how active they were.
Fairy Penguin Island: The reason for my visit were of course the only Little Blue Penguins in Europe. The world's smallest penguin species appeared even smaller in person than I had anticipated, and were simply adorable. Weymouth keeps an impressive group of 32 individuals (according to a sign, although I could only count ~25 and from the looks of things the entire enclosure was onshow) and they were very entertaining indeed - it also may well be the only outdoor penguin enclosure I have seen which also has the indoors on-display, a welcome addition indeed. However, I did question the lack of an outdoor pool (although there was a deep indoor one, which the penguins didn't seem to use regardless), and did find the fairytale-like music very much annoying. Sea Life centres have a tendency of overusing music to theme their enclosures, so I did expect this, but didn't quite anticipate how annoying it would be...
Otters: I was actually rather impressed by the Asiatic Short-clawed Otter enclosure, which had a decent pool, abundant vegetation, and a nice pagoda-like theme. A group of five otters were visible enjoying the pool through the underwater viewing area.
Turtle Sanctuary: After walking under a statue of a sea turtle, you are led into a very dark room with a trio of pools for five species of freshwater turtles, which are always highlight species for me when I am visiting zoos, and as such I was very much pleased by this room. Among the species held were Ouachita Map Turtle and Florida Cooter, both rarities, although I also saw my first Common Snapping Turtle, a very large and impressive species, which is fairly abundant in captivity, and as such an animal which I am glad to have finally seen. As much as I appreciated the species selection, I thought all three enclosures were fairly disappointing, and felt much more like what you would see for turtles at a pet shop than at a zoological establishment. Compare them to any of the SLoRA enclosures, for example, and the lack of landscaping or foliage is rather obvious. The darkness of the room was also questionable.
Ocean Tunnel: The Turtle Sanctuary leads onto the Ocean Tunnel, rather fittingly, as the stars of the show here is a rescued Green Sea Turtle. Unlike many zoo enthusiasts, I am rather fond of ocean tunnels, and love the viewpoints that they offer of the fish that inhabit the tank. However, other than a wonderful view of a Green Sea Turtle (a species that I have always had a soft spot for and, much like the octopus, haven't seen in some time due to how rarely I visit aquaria compared to zoos) and some very large Whitemargin Unicornfish, another Weymouth rarity, this was thoroughly forgettable. It was probably the smallest one that I have ever seen, even smaller than the one at the now-closed aquarium in Weston-super-Mare, and unlike most such tunnel tanks, it lacked an alternate viewing area barring a very small window, through which almost nothing could be seen. The fact that this is the biggest tank at Weymouth says more about Weymouth than the tank!
Harbourside: The main tank here was one of the better 'large' tanks at the aquarium (although large by Weymouth standards isn't all that impressive), and with Mangrove Whipray it had quite a decent rarity. What made it so enjoyable was how busy it was, with countless fish ranging from Small-spotted Catshark to Gilthead Seabream all in decently large numbers - seeing a European Plaice venture far higher in the water than is typical, swimming in a very bizarre manner, was also entertaining. In the centre, a circular tank with Sandsmelt was present, while at the opposite end of the building was a rather strange tank that mixed the saltwater European Spiny Lobster with the freshwater Three-spined Stickleback, which led to me discovering the fact that sticklebacks can indeed be found in estuarine and saltwater environments.
Tropical Lagoon: Purely guessing based on appearance, this tank, which is the only one within the building, is the second largest in the aquarium after the tunnel tank. Yet again, it is fairly standard, although I was delighted to see a Shovelnose Guitarfish, another rarity, and shark lifeticks are always memorable, as well as to be reunited with several old favourites, such as Port Jackson Shark, which the decreasing frequency of my zoo visits has led to me not having seen in some time.
Rainforest: The final exhibit that I saw at Sea Life Weymouth was the Rainforest building. The main tank here was quite possibly my favourite in the entire aquarium, with two enormous Giant Gourami and two very colourful Asian Arowana being the highlights, both surprising me with their large size and attractive colourations respectively. To think that the Giants are close relatives of the gourami that, not too long ago, I had considered getting for my own aquarium, despite being the size of the entire tank, was a strange feeling indeed. The huge number of smaller fish, including tetras and plecos, which they shared a tank with only made it more interesting. Elsewhere in this building were the only amphibians in the collection (Axolotls and Blue Poison Dart Frogs), Blackspot Piranha, a rarer and, in my opinion, more attractively coloured alternative to the Red-bellied that I would love to see held at more collections, and a Four-eyed Fish tank with a very impressively large number of this very bizarre species.
Overall thoughts: For starters, I thoroughly enjoyed my visit to Sea Life Weymouth, and am very glad to have visited. As mentioned earlier, this has always been somewhere that I had wanted to visit, so doing so for the first time was a wonderful experience, to see what every exhibit and icon on that map which I had seen so many times growing up actually represented. It is also a rarity-hunter's aquarium. Between the penguins, the mantis shrimps, the ghoul, the map turtles, the arowanas, the piranhas and the guitarfishes, along with many others, there is a clear fondness of rarities here that is far greater than most public aquaria, especially sea life centres. Seeing as they also hold the only hagfish in the UK and the only Inshore Hagfish in Europe (although they are unfortunately kept off-display), I highly suspect that someone at Weymouth has a strong liking for rarities.
However, from an objective standpoint, this is a thoroughly average aquarium in terms of quality. There are no major tanks, which is perhaps to be expected, given that it is not one large building, but rather a series of separate ones in an aquarium that gets its charm and character from an outdoor setting, but the lack of a single outstanding exhibit is a little bit disappointing. Off the top of my head, my three favourite exhibits at the aquarium would certainly be the main tanks in the Harbourside and the Rainforest buildings, and the moray tank in the Seahorse Nursery, which are all more akin to a tank at the Horniman Museum than at a mainstream aquarium in terms of scale. The other issue is that Weymouth is not a full day visit, unless you are visiting with a large family that includes small children, in which case the multitude of playgrounds, including a splash play area, could make it one. As mentioned earlier, I arrived at 13:15, and with the aquarium closing at 17:00, I feared that I hadn't allowed for enough time - it turned out that I had allowed for far too much, as I was done with the collection and ready to leave within two hours, and would have left then and there if it weren't for the fact that our train didn't leave until 17:30. In the end, I stayed there until half-an-hour or so before closing time, keeping myself entertained with mantis shrimps, seals and Little Blue Penguins.
I thoroughly enjoyed my visit to Weymouth, and would certainly visit again if the opportunity arises, but in all honesty, I can hardly see a visit being worth it whatsoever were it not for the rarities, at least from a zoo enthusiast perspective. For family groups however, I suspect this could be one of the most entertaining zoos in the country, and would certainly recommend it.
Recently, with a growing interest in seeing rarer species, I ended up with further reason to visit, after realising that the collection is home to Europe's only Little Blue Penguins, along with another very interesting and long-awaited target species of mine, the Weedy Sea Dragon.
For a variety of reasons, I opted to travel by train, which led to an arrival in Weymouth at around midday, a lunch of fish and chips on the city's very attractive seafront, and then a half-an-hour stroll which meant we arrived at the collection at around 13:15. The aquarium is situated within the Lodmoor Country Park, and is just one street crossing away from the sea, which makes for a very attractive setting indeed.
Unfortunately, I don't have a species list, so this will be less of a walkthrough-type account, and more of an exhibit-by-exhibit overview of the collection.
Seahorse Nursery: Right in front of the entrance is this small building featuring four smaller tanks for seahorses and their relatives. The highlights were the Weedy Sea Dragons, bizarre Australian fish known for their ability to camouflage among kelp - one thing that surprised me was how many Weymouth held, as I counted no less than twelve, although there may have been more, within a surprisingly large tank for the species in question. All of the tanks in this area are well-decorated, with broken mussel shells along the floor, although I couldn't help but wish that real kelp was used other than what I assume was a plastic lookalike. Razorfish, Pot-bellied Seahorse and Longsnouted Seahorse were also present. There was also a very large tank for larger fish, which featured as its highlight a stupendously large Green Moray - I had no idea that the species could grow so big!
Rockpool: Like many sea life centres, Weymouth has a rockpool in which you can touch starfish among other creatures of our local waters. This one stood out to me for two reasons - the first was the size of it, with many interconnected tanks and a walkway at the back which allowed visitors to climb along rocks within the water, and the second was the presence of a very large and impressive European Spider Crab. I hadn't realised that the species grew to such sizes, and was very much impressed.
Shipwreck: A fairly random assortment of smaller marine creatures, presumably placed within the same building for no other reason than there being nowhere else to put them. However, the species in here are very interesting, and for that reason, this was one of the highlights of my visit. It was wonderful to see Common Octopus again, a species that, with how scarcely I visit aquaria these days, I do not see near often enough. The Red Lionfish and Humpback Grouper tank was also signed as having no less than three species of pufferfish, an impressive variety, although I couldn't see any.
The two real highlights, however, were the Bearded Ghoul and Peacock Mantis Shrimp. The former is a species of stonefish held at just three other European zoos according to ZTL (which already listed Weymouth as a holder, although no source had been provided, hence I have now added one), which was my first time encountering any species from that subfamily, although I found that it bared a much closer resemblance to the closely related scorpionfish, which I had seen elsewhere - only much bigger! Besides the ghoul was a much smaller and differently coloured fish that was fairly similar in appearance - possibly just a young ghoul, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was a scorpionfish of some description. The mantis shrimp was even better, however. I have wanted to see one since childhood, but had always assumed they were too difficult to keep in captivity, until being proven wrong last year by the discovery of a photo of one at Plymouth in the gallery last year. Even still, I was in awe at finally seeing one, and was caught completely by surprise by it, not knowing that they were held by the collection. At first, it was just a pair of eyes peering out of a hollow rock in the centre of their tank, but later in the day, the shrimp ventured outdoors, and I was caught somewhat off guard by the size of it, the disproportion of its body, and its namesake peacock-like markings on its tail. The shrimp climbed the side of the tank and then, at remarkable speeds, presumably using its famous club-like claw to propel itself, moved back into the tank, so fast that I almost thought I had imagined it. A truly special encounter.
Humboldt Penguins: The Humboldt Penguin enclosure at Weymouth was a major disappointment, not seeming to offer enough land space or pool depth for the animals. I feel as though Weymouth should take advantage of its outdoor design to focus heavily on marine mammals and seabirds, as on top of this mediocrity, the seal and Little Blue Penguin enclosures were, although not bad, thoroughly average.
Seal Harbour: Four Harbour Seals (two of which being rescues) inhabit a fairly standard pinniped pool. The main part of the pool is actually of a fairly impressive depth, with three underwater viewing panels, one of which being of a semi-circle shape within the tank, offering decent views into the pool - in terms of surface area, however, it seemed to be a little small. That said, the seals were very entertaining, and despite being relatively commonplace in zoos, I probably spent more time admiring them than any other animal at the collection, simply due to how active they were.
Fairy Penguin Island: The reason for my visit were of course the only Little Blue Penguins in Europe. The world's smallest penguin species appeared even smaller in person than I had anticipated, and were simply adorable. Weymouth keeps an impressive group of 32 individuals (according to a sign, although I could only count ~25 and from the looks of things the entire enclosure was onshow) and they were very entertaining indeed - it also may well be the only outdoor penguin enclosure I have seen which also has the indoors on-display, a welcome addition indeed. However, I did question the lack of an outdoor pool (although there was a deep indoor one, which the penguins didn't seem to use regardless), and did find the fairytale-like music very much annoying. Sea Life centres have a tendency of overusing music to theme their enclosures, so I did expect this, but didn't quite anticipate how annoying it would be...
Otters: I was actually rather impressed by the Asiatic Short-clawed Otter enclosure, which had a decent pool, abundant vegetation, and a nice pagoda-like theme. A group of five otters were visible enjoying the pool through the underwater viewing area.
Turtle Sanctuary: After walking under a statue of a sea turtle, you are led into a very dark room with a trio of pools for five species of freshwater turtles, which are always highlight species for me when I am visiting zoos, and as such I was very much pleased by this room. Among the species held were Ouachita Map Turtle and Florida Cooter, both rarities, although I also saw my first Common Snapping Turtle, a very large and impressive species, which is fairly abundant in captivity, and as such an animal which I am glad to have finally seen. As much as I appreciated the species selection, I thought all three enclosures were fairly disappointing, and felt much more like what you would see for turtles at a pet shop than at a zoological establishment. Compare them to any of the SLoRA enclosures, for example, and the lack of landscaping or foliage is rather obvious. The darkness of the room was also questionable.
Ocean Tunnel: The Turtle Sanctuary leads onto the Ocean Tunnel, rather fittingly, as the stars of the show here is a rescued Green Sea Turtle. Unlike many zoo enthusiasts, I am rather fond of ocean tunnels, and love the viewpoints that they offer of the fish that inhabit the tank. However, other than a wonderful view of a Green Sea Turtle (a species that I have always had a soft spot for and, much like the octopus, haven't seen in some time due to how rarely I visit aquaria compared to zoos) and some very large Whitemargin Unicornfish, another Weymouth rarity, this was thoroughly forgettable. It was probably the smallest one that I have ever seen, even smaller than the one at the now-closed aquarium in Weston-super-Mare, and unlike most such tunnel tanks, it lacked an alternate viewing area barring a very small window, through which almost nothing could be seen. The fact that this is the biggest tank at Weymouth says more about Weymouth than the tank!
Harbourside: The main tank here was one of the better 'large' tanks at the aquarium (although large by Weymouth standards isn't all that impressive), and with Mangrove Whipray it had quite a decent rarity. What made it so enjoyable was how busy it was, with countless fish ranging from Small-spotted Catshark to Gilthead Seabream all in decently large numbers - seeing a European Plaice venture far higher in the water than is typical, swimming in a very bizarre manner, was also entertaining. In the centre, a circular tank with Sandsmelt was present, while at the opposite end of the building was a rather strange tank that mixed the saltwater European Spiny Lobster with the freshwater Three-spined Stickleback, which led to me discovering the fact that sticklebacks can indeed be found in estuarine and saltwater environments.
Tropical Lagoon: Purely guessing based on appearance, this tank, which is the only one within the building, is the second largest in the aquarium after the tunnel tank. Yet again, it is fairly standard, although I was delighted to see a Shovelnose Guitarfish, another rarity, and shark lifeticks are always memorable, as well as to be reunited with several old favourites, such as Port Jackson Shark, which the decreasing frequency of my zoo visits has led to me not having seen in some time.
Rainforest: The final exhibit that I saw at Sea Life Weymouth was the Rainforest building. The main tank here was quite possibly my favourite in the entire aquarium, with two enormous Giant Gourami and two very colourful Asian Arowana being the highlights, both surprising me with their large size and attractive colourations respectively. To think that the Giants are close relatives of the gourami that, not too long ago, I had considered getting for my own aquarium, despite being the size of the entire tank, was a strange feeling indeed. The huge number of smaller fish, including tetras and plecos, which they shared a tank with only made it more interesting. Elsewhere in this building were the only amphibians in the collection (Axolotls and Blue Poison Dart Frogs), Blackspot Piranha, a rarer and, in my opinion, more attractively coloured alternative to the Red-bellied that I would love to see held at more collections, and a Four-eyed Fish tank with a very impressively large number of this very bizarre species.
Overall thoughts: For starters, I thoroughly enjoyed my visit to Sea Life Weymouth, and am very glad to have visited. As mentioned earlier, this has always been somewhere that I had wanted to visit, so doing so for the first time was a wonderful experience, to see what every exhibit and icon on that map which I had seen so many times growing up actually represented. It is also a rarity-hunter's aquarium. Between the penguins, the mantis shrimps, the ghoul, the map turtles, the arowanas, the piranhas and the guitarfishes, along with many others, there is a clear fondness of rarities here that is far greater than most public aquaria, especially sea life centres. Seeing as they also hold the only hagfish in the UK and the only Inshore Hagfish in Europe (although they are unfortunately kept off-display), I highly suspect that someone at Weymouth has a strong liking for rarities.
However, from an objective standpoint, this is a thoroughly average aquarium in terms of quality. There are no major tanks, which is perhaps to be expected, given that it is not one large building, but rather a series of separate ones in an aquarium that gets its charm and character from an outdoor setting, but the lack of a single outstanding exhibit is a little bit disappointing. Off the top of my head, my three favourite exhibits at the aquarium would certainly be the main tanks in the Harbourside and the Rainforest buildings, and the moray tank in the Seahorse Nursery, which are all more akin to a tank at the Horniman Museum than at a mainstream aquarium in terms of scale. The other issue is that Weymouth is not a full day visit, unless you are visiting with a large family that includes small children, in which case the multitude of playgrounds, including a splash play area, could make it one. As mentioned earlier, I arrived at 13:15, and with the aquarium closing at 17:00, I feared that I hadn't allowed for enough time - it turned out that I had allowed for far too much, as I was done with the collection and ready to leave within two hours, and would have left then and there if it weren't for the fact that our train didn't leave until 17:30. In the end, I stayed there until half-an-hour or so before closing time, keeping myself entertained with mantis shrimps, seals and Little Blue Penguins.
I thoroughly enjoyed my visit to Weymouth, and would certainly visit again if the opportunity arises, but in all honesty, I can hardly see a visit being worth it whatsoever were it not for the rarities, at least from a zoo enthusiast perspective. For family groups however, I suspect this could be one of the most entertaining zoos in the country, and would certainly recommend it.
