Me and AgileGibbon visited Rhyl SeaQuarium today and had an enjoyable day. There was a good few nice species, I got a much clearer picture of an octopus than I did at Blackpool SeaLife and we had our picture taken with one of the South African fur seals.
The Pros:
- Nice species and a good layout.
- Very freindly staff, helpful and informative.
- Excellent signage, only a couple of things seemed to be not signed (for example a strange, triop-like creature in with the cowfish).
- Not using the traditional California sea lions seems wise to me, as the South African fur seals are smaller and the pools are not huge, they seem to just about accomodate the smaller species but I think that California sea lions would have been cramped.
The Cons:
- Seal show, whilst some-what entertaining, was only that. I don't know about others, but I much prefer there to be some education in it. For example, Welsh Mountain Zoo's was one of my fave ones as it is less about jumping hoops and more about using there intelligence to highlight problems in the wild and conservation messages. SeaQuarium's was a competition with the presenter as Peter Pan and the two seals were 'Wendy' and 'Capt. Hook.' The two seals essentially competed to see which could jump the best.
Can't think of too much else for now, but will put some pics in the gallery at some point next week when I get back
.
The Pros:
- Nice species and a good layout.
- Very freindly staff, helpful and informative.
- Excellent signage, only a couple of things seemed to be not signed (for example a strange, triop-like creature in with the cowfish).
- Not using the traditional California sea lions seems wise to me, as the South African fur seals are smaller and the pools are not huge, they seem to just about accomodate the smaller species but I think that California sea lions would have been cramped.
The Cons:
- Seal show, whilst some-what entertaining, was only that. I don't know about others, but I much prefer there to be some education in it. For example, Welsh Mountain Zoo's was one of my fave ones as it is less about jumping hoops and more about using there intelligence to highlight problems in the wild and conservation messages. SeaQuarium's was a competition with the presenter as Peter Pan and the two seals were 'Wendy' and 'Capt. Hook.' The two seals essentially competed to see which could jump the best.
Can't think of too much else for now, but will put some pics in the gallery at some point next week when I get back
.
