Sea Life Centres

Sea Life Centres are a chain of sealife themed attractions.

The chain has twenty-five centres located in Belgium, England, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Ireland, Denmark, Scotland and Spain. The chain is owned by Merlin Entertainments.

Attractions

Sea Life Centres are marketed to families seeking as easy, entertaining and educational experience. They are marketed by owners Merlin Entertainments as a "friendly and authoritative guide to the last great frontier...the seas and oceans of the world and their myriad mysterious and amazing inhabitants."

Each centre combines modern glass and display technology, biological expertise and entertainment to provide themed journeys through European and tropical waters. This often provides close encounters with sealife from shrimps and starfish to seahorses, sharks and stingrays.

Sealife centres also claim to champion the cause of marine conservation, through education, awareness and, wherever possible, direct action.

eal Sanctuaries

Seal Sanctuaries operate from three centres in the United Kingdom: the National Seal Sanctuary, Cornwall; the Hunstanton Sea Life Sanctuary in Norfolk; the Scottish Sea Life Sanctuary at Oban

OS campaigns

Since 2001 all Sea Life Centre conservation, rescue and campaigning work has come under the SOS scheme, an acronym for Save Our Seas.

SOS supports the work of numerous wildlife charities and campaign groups including Greenpeace, the Worldwide Fund for Nature, the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society, and the British Divers Marine Life Rescue. Each centre also has a headline campaign which change on an annual or bi-annual basis, which in the past have called for increased protection for Loggerhead Sea Turtles, and restrictions on the practice of shark-finning.

Locations

UK

*London Aquarium (to be rebranded as 'Sea Life London' in late 2008)
*National Sea Life Centre, Birmingham
*Blackpool
*Brighton
*Chessington World Of Adventures(Opened 2008)
*Great Yarmouth
*Balloch, Loch Lomond
*Scarborough
*Yarmouth
*Weymouth
*The Scottish Sea Life Sanctuary, Barcaldine near Oban

Germany

*Berlin
*Cuxhaven (Opened Summer 2008, previous location Dresden)
*Königswinter
*Konstanz
*Munich
*Nurnberg
*Oberhausen
*Speyer
*Timmendorfer Strand
*Hannover

Rest of Europe

*Blankenberge, Belgium
*Bray, Ireland
*Helsinki, Finland
*Val d'Europe, Paris, France
*Den Haag, Holland
*Sea Life Centre, Benalmádena, Málaga, Spain
*Legoland Atlantis by Sea Life, Billund, Denmark
*Gardaland Sea Life, Italy

External links

* [http://www.sealifeeurope.com Sea Life Centres - official website]
* [http://www.sealsanctuary.co.uk Seal Sanctuary]