Sea Life London Aquarium | |
---|---|
51°30′7″N0°7′8″W / 51.50194°N 0.11889°W | |
Date opened | March 1997 (22 years and 9 months ago) [1] |
Location | London, England |
No. of species | ~500 [2] |
Total volume of tanks | More than 2,000,000 litres (440,000 imp gal; 530,000 US gal) [2] |
Annual visitors | 1,000,000 [1] |
Memberships | BIAZA [3] |
Public transit access | Waterloo Westminster |
Website | sealife.co.uk/london |
The Sea Life London Aquarium is located on the ground floor of County Hall on the South Bank of the River Thames in central London, near the London Eye. It opened in March 1997 as the London Aquarium and hosts about one million visitors each year.
In 2005, the aquarium displayed three robotic Fish created by the computer science department at the University of Essex. The fish were designed to be autonomous, swimming around and avoiding obstacles like real fish. Their creator claimed that he was trying to combine "the speed of tuna, acceleration of a pike, and the navigating skills of an eel." [4] [5]
In April 2008, the aquarium was purchased by Merlin Entertainments for an undisclosed sum. [6] The facility was closed for a £5 million refurbishment, which was completed in April 2009. The additions included a new underwater tunnel, Shark Walk, a revamped Pacific Ocean tank, and a complete rerouting of the exhibit, all of which were carried out under the supervision of architect Kay Elliott. [7] The attraction officially became a Sea Life Centre when it reopened in April 2009. [8]
In May 2011, the aquarium opened a new penguin exhibit, with 10 gentoo penguins transferred from the Edinburgh Zoo. In 2015, the aquarium was moved to a different location in County Hall due to the opening of Shrek's Adventure, London.
The aquarium includes two classrooms themed around the conservation campaigns which the zoo supports, which host up to 40,000 school children each year and are open to the public when not in use by the education program. It is involved in several breeding programs including the Cuban crocodile, seahorses, butterfly goodeids, and jellyfish, and works with many conservation organizations including Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society and Shark Trust. [9]
The National Sea Life Centre is an aquarium with over 60 displays of freshwater and marine life in Brindleyplace, Birmingham, England. Its ocean tank has a capacity of 1,000,000 litres (220,000 imp gal) of water and houses giant green sea turtles, blacktip reef sharks and tropical reef fish, with the only fully transparent 360-degree underwater tunnel in the United Kingdom. The building was designed by Sir Norman Foster.
West Midlands Safari Park is a safari park located in Bewdley in Worcestershire, England. It was opened under the name of West Midland Safari Park in Spring 1973.
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The National Marine Aquarium, which opened in May 1998, is situated in Plymouth in south-west England. It is the largest aquarium in the UK and houses over 5,000 animals.
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Kelly Tarlton's Sea Life Aquarium is a public aquarium opened in 1985 in Auckland, New Zealand. Located at 23 Tamaki Drive, it was the brainchild of New Zealand marine archaeologist and diver Kelly Tarlton (1937–1985).
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A public aquarium (pl. aquaria) or public water zoo is the aquatic counterpart of a zoo, which houses living aquatic animal and plant specimens for public viewing. Most public aquariums feature tanks larger than those kept by home aquarists, as well as smaller tanks.
The Dallas World Aquarium is a for-profit aquarium and zoo located in the West End Historic District of Dallas, Texas, USA. It aids conservation and education by housing many animals that are threatened or endangered as part of a cooperative breeding program with other zoos around the world. It has been an accredited member of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums since 1997 and is a member of the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums.
Sea Life is a chain of commercial sea life-themed aquarium attractions. As of April 2017 there are 53 Sea Life attractions around the world. The chain is owned by the British company Merlin Entertainments.
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Living Coasts was a coastal zoo at the site of Torquay Marine Spa in Devon, England. It was owned by South West Environmental Parks as part of the Wild Planet Trust, formerly known as Whitley Wildlife Conservation Trust, which also operates Newquay Zoo and Paignton Zoo. It was a registered charity, based around seabirds and other coastal wildlife. The site had a covered giant aviary which included several animal enclosures and habitats including an artificial tidal estuary, a penguin beach, a tropical mangrove swamp, and underwater viewing areas.
Blue Reef is a national chain of public aquariums in England owned by Aspro Parks.
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Media related to Sea Life London Aquarium at Wikimedia Commons