Swimming with Sharks at the Sealife Centre in Blackpool
My eldest girl has ventured into the realm of GCSE’s, which means all thoughts are focused on your career choices. Over the last 12 mths, she has mentioned that she’d like to either be a Zoologist, an Author or a Marine Biologist. Meaning that on her bucket list is the chance to go swimming with sharks!
So, for her 14th birthday, her Dad & I made the decision to get her gifts to help her flourish one of the three careers she had in mind. Not to mention, one of those choices on her list included something on her bucket list!
Did you know that the Sealife Centre in Blackpool offered this kind of experience? I didn’t when I had the thought, but when I saw that you could – it was fate! Her Dad and I had a chat and before I knew it, everything was booked.
Once we arrived at the Sealife Centre in Blackpool, we met with our Aquarist keeper for the day {the experience takes around 4hrs} and after Ellie got fitted with her own Shark Keeper t-shirt, we were shown around the Sealife Centre in a very special way.
Ellie was told in-depth knowledge about sea life within the centre {and some secrets, too!}. She {and I} was able to go into places the public wouldn’t be able to. Such as the lab where medication is prepared. We had a look in the quarantine section and also the kitchen where all of the food for marine life is prepared.
After being shown around the Sealife centre, it was feeding time. Ellie got to feed the baby sharks and rays and hundreds of fish in the newly built marine tank. If you know the Blackpool Sealife centre, this is where the open-topped ray tank used to be. It’s such an amazing extension to the centre and it looks incredible.
Her next job was to prepare the food for the sharks in the main tank. The one you see at the end of your Sealife centre journey. She had to put two types of vitamins into each of the fish – these provide the fish with anything they may be missing out on to keep them healthy.
Ellie and I were then taken up to the top of the main tank, and given a safety brief and latex gloves to wear. Ellie was shown how to place her fish onto the end of the pole and how to use the pole when feeding the fish. Meaning, that when she placed the fish into the water and the shark took the fish, you have to angle the pole upwards to remove it.
She got the hang of it pretty well and before we knew it she was feeding black and white-tipped reef sharks, Nurse sharks {Flora nicknamed ‘Fatty’ as she just circles continually for food!} and Gary the Grouper.
Gary was quite funny to feed as he wouldn’t take any food unless it made a splash. So Ellie has to properly downward throw the fish into the water for Gary to take notice. Sure enough, he did and up he came for his food.
The last leg of her Aquarist for the day experience was the finale, the peest-de-resistance! – Swimming with Sharks! Little did I know upon having this experience booked for her that a parent had to go in with her. So in other words, I got to go in with her which was exciting, but a little scary too! A safety brief was given, and wetsuits and boots were provided as well as full-faced snorkel masks. After the safety briefing, it was off to the top of the tank where we got into a huge net and got to swim around for 30 mins.
The sharks up close were incredible. You are in no danger whatsoever – they had just been fed after all! They swam around nearby us for a while, realised we weren’t a threat or food and just swam around, doing what they do. Phoenix, the huge {but still quite young} green turtle was particularly curious, which was amazing. Seeing her up close was something else entirely! Not to mention the 1500 fish in the tank, too! The 30mins you get snorkelling with the sharks went by so fast, I think we could have done it for an hour, easily. There was something so serene and relaxing, yet a true privilege about the whole experience. I’m sure it is one Ellie will remember forever – I know I will.
Overall thoughts?
The Aquarist experience, specifically the Shark Keeper for the day experience was £150pp. This does include an entry for your family into the centre but only one parent can be present in the experience. So for example, my husband took the kids around, while I did the experience with Ellie.
The experience lasts around 4 hours, but 1 hour of that is taken for your lunch. You get to have excess to parts of the Sealife centre that you never would as a normal visitor and the snorkelling with sharks was amazing. I highly recommend it.
Have you ever swam with Sharks? Or is swimming with sharks on your bucket list!?
If you enjoyed this post, you might like to read our Zoo Keeper for a day experience at Blackpool Zoo.
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What a fun experience. I will have to put it into our bucket list of things. Thank you for sharing.
I can imagine this to be an amazing experience. I don’t know it I could be brave enough to swim with sharks though.
Wow how cool is this. Your daughter is pretty brave for giving this a go to be honest x
She is, very much so and thank you! She had a bit of a wobble at first, but then she loved every minute of it!
I had no idea you could do this in Sealife centre but it sounds like such an amazing experience, and so good to help her see if this is something she’d like to pursue as a job x
Neither did I until I took a chance to search for it. Then what do you know! Her Dad and I were able to make her dreams come true. It was such an amazing experience for her – she loved every minute. x
Wow thank you for sharing this. My little one is mad fan of shark. He knows everything about sharks for a 9 yoa boy. I’ll definitely tell him about the possibility to have this experience. Super cool
This is hands down, something you should look into for him! You can do swimming with sharks for £50pp!
That sounds incredible! I definitely wouldn’t be down for swimming with the sharks though, you’re both a lot braver than me!
It was! And you should – it’s not as scary as you think! They’d just been fed and they’re so used to divers going in that we were perfectly safe. Just need to remember to keep those fingers inside the net though, haha!
Your daughter is the sweetest! Anyone who has a heart for animals and would even devote their career to bettering their lives is a good soul. After her experience, is she thinking she’ll work someplace like Sea World?
Aww, thank you so much! She is honestly such a humanitarian – you should see her when our cat has captured a mouse or a bird! She goes to all kinds of lengths to save the little critter! She’s considering Seaworld, no, but definitely marine life conservation {possibly} in some form.
Wow, what an incredible, educational and unique experience! You are both much braver than I am!
Those are the exact emotions I feel about it, too! It was all of those things and more.
Oh my, what an amazing experience and one that she will be talking about for months (even years) to come. I think my eldest would love something like this, so I’ll have to see if they offer sessions like this at our local SEALIFE centre
Exactly! It was one of her bucket list wishes too – so that was a huge plus! If they do, they offer swimming with shark experiences for £50pp x