Sea Life have really come up trumps here, offering a completely unique and exclusive opportunity to win a prize that money cannot buy. Two extremely lucky winners will enjoy a truly fabulous behind-the-scenes experience.
Sea Life have spent the last 30 years developing a portfolio of Europe’s most popular wildlife attractions, including aquariums and sanctuaries. At each Sea Life centre, you are immersed in an experience, and it feels as if you are right among the fishes, sharks, jellyfish, seahorses, and more. It feels like you are more than just a spectator. They achieve this by finding new and exciting ways to exhibit the creatures, and by finding new ways for visitors to interact with them. The old-fashioned aquarium as a gallery is out, and tunnels, curved tanks and bubbles that allow you to get astonishingly close to the wonderful creatures are in. A number of the locations also make it possible to get involved in some conservation work. Crystal-clear water, together with expert husbandry and carefully prepared surrounds that carefully mimic preferred natural habitats, make for not only better viewing, but also, and more importantly, optimum living conditions for the creatures. Species that flourish in aquarium surroundings, when viewed as a complete collection, give a more realistic picture of the wealth and diversity of life in our oceans, and these are naturally chosen for Sea Life exhibits.
Conservation, research and rescue projects are considered a major priority, and raising awareness of the importance of safeguarding the seas and their inhabitants is integral to the Sea Life experience. The sanctuaries are well known for the rescue and rehabilitation programmes for abandoned, injured and sick seal pups, and are great places to see and experience the conservation work firsthand. One of the biggest success stories for wildlife in recent years is the work Sea Life have been doing with the breeding of seahorses. The programme has been so successful that Weymouth opened the National Seahorse Breeding and Conservation unit in 2003. So many baby seahorses have since been reared there that satellite breeding facilities were set up at many other Sea Life centres. A whole specific article on the seahorse project has also been published in issue 9, and can be found on page 92.
THE PRIZE In this issue there are two opportunities to win this behind-the-scenes experience. Both prizes are identical and the details are as follows:
- Each prize includes two places, for the winner plus a guest
- The prize is a behind-the-scenes tour of a Sea Life Centre
- The tour is completely bespoke, and has been designed specifically for this competition. It is not possible to purchase this experience at any of the Sea Life centres worldwide
- The winner and their guest will be allocated a personal tour guide for the day
- A choice of three Sea Life Centres in the UK is available: Scarborough, Birmingham, and Weymouth
- Full day of activities; for example, food preparation, water-quality testing, creature transfer, feeding of display creatures, seal care work, etc. Activities may vary depending on location and day of visit
- Complimentary refreshments provided throughout the day
- Excludes school/bank holidays (i.e. Easter week, summer break, Christmas and all bank holidays) due to staff being too busy to allocate the required time to the winners
- Prize winners will have photographs taken enjoying the special activities
- Prize must be redeemed by 31st Dec 2012
Scarborough
- New 2012 attraction – Octopus Garden
- 150 different species of fish
- Over 350 seal pups rescued and released from the Seal Rescue Centre
- Journey through the under water tunnel as sharks swim over your head
- Meet the resident otters, seals and penguins
Weymouth
- New 2012 attraction – CLAWS Crusty Creatures of the Deep
- Access to 1,000+ creatures, including penguins, seals, otters, sea turtles and crocs
- Interactive rock pool
- Indoor and outdoor displays, including the walkthrough Ocean Tank, Turtle Sanctuary and Shark Reef
Birmingham
- New 2012 attraction – CLAWS Crusty Creatures of the Deep
- 4-D cinema experience
- Interactive rock pool
- 1,000+ creatures, including hammerhead sharks, giant turtles, seahorses, otters and rays
- 60+ displays including the million-litre underwater tropical tank, Nemo’s Kingdom and Turtle Breeding
