Sealife Sanctuary Hunstanton
Hunstanton SEA LIFE Sanctuary
Southern Promenade, Hunstanton,
Norfolk PE36 5BH
Tel: 01485 533576
About Sealife Sanctuary Hunstanton
Sealife Sanctuary is the name of three centres across the country that offer visitors a great day out as well as fulfilling their role for the rescue and rehabilitation of marine animals. As part of the Sea Life network of marine life aquariums, each Sealife Sanctuary provides a crucial lifeline for scores of abandoned, stray or injured seal pups every year. In addition, all three sanctuaries boast plenty of other attractions meaning that they are an ideal educational and fun family day out, not prone to the vagaries of the weather.
Each Sealife Sanctuary site provides a unique insight into the lives of myriad waterborne creatures, from shrimps to sharks, with expert staff on hand to provide visitors with information, the opportunity to handle shellfish and other maritime animals in touch pools, and to learn about their habitats. Each Sealife Sanctuary ticket buys into a world of frontline conservation, with the National Seal Sanctuary based at Gweek, Cornwall, while the Scottish Sealife Sanctuary is at Oban – famous equally for its fine single malt whiskies, and now its fine single seals - and the Hunstanton Sealife Sanctuary, in Norfolk.
Each houses a range of sea life and offers rescued animals the chance of rehabilitation and release back into the wild. Each Sealife Sanctuary has an aquarium with fish and other creatures, many from adjacent coastal waters, as well as further afield. Among the roster are shrimps, starfish, herring, stingrays, crabs and octopuses, while breeding facilities are on hand for seahorses and otters.
For all those with an interest in wild animal welfare, as well as a fun family day out, a trip to one a Sealife Sanctuary is just the ticket. An all-year round, any-weather family attraction with eco-friendly credentials.
Sealife Sanctuary Hunstanton is located on the Southern Promenade of Hunstanton, Norfolk, on the east coast, where it participates in seal rescues, both locally and nationally. The existing Seal Hospital has had over 100 baby seals through its doors, and anyone with a ticket to Sealife Sanctuary Hunstanton has the chance to see its expert staff working with animals rescued from all sorts of circumstances, whether abandoned, ill, injured in accidents, or in pollution incidents. The family attraction allows observation of the seal pups from the first day of treatment through to recovery and, if applicable, release back to the wild.
The Sealife Sanctuary Hunstanton veterinary team works through day and night to stabilise rescued seals and undertakes a daily routine from before sunrise, checking pups one by one, treating and prescribing medication, taking blood samples, controlling infections, and feeding. If a pup is under three weeks old (a white pup), it’s fed with liquidised fish and glucose and electrolyte solution – approximating its mother’s milk.
It’s fed by bottle or via a tube. From three weeks old, pups are weaned onto fish and, when they reach a target weight about 20 kilograms, they’re moved to an outdoor nursery pool, before return to the sea with a small identification tag.
Also included in the ticket to this fascinating family attraction is access to a colony of Humboldt Penguins, which number as few as 10,000 in the wild. The flightless marine birds originate on the coasts of Peru and Chile, and their flippers make them agile, speedy swimmers, hitting 10 mph in the water. Their playful antics are a highlight of a family day out at Sealife Sanctuary Hunstanton.
Another is a resident group of British otters, known as Eurasian Otters, which have been threatened by the loss of habitat, pollution, recreational disturbance, tourism and hunting. Their antics are often worth the price of the ticket alone, and their status as crowd-pleasers is challenged only by some of the more exotic animals at Sealife Sanctuary Hunstanton.
Among these are a Bamboo Shark in the Ocean Tank, the Claws exhibit featuring a lobster, fiddler crab, horseshoe crabs, spider crabs and the mantis shrimp, which has a spring-loaded front claw that packs a punch equivalent of the impact of a .22 bullet. Additionally, your ticket to this family attraction buys you a close encounter with Giant Japanese crabs with a one-metre claw-span. The world’s biggest crab species, they are flown in from Japan in special crates and spent two weeks acclimatising in the Marine Hospital quarantine unit before going on show.
Also on view are mothers and fathers in the Maternity/Paternity ward and juveniles in the Nursery Ward, while behind the scenes operations such as caring for injured or sick fish are a daily occurrence. Hence, a family day out is both educational and fun at Sealife Sanctuary Hunstanton, making the all-weather facility a perfect family attraction.