The Hunstanton SEA LIFE Sanctuary

Discounted all day ticket!!
The Sanctuary sits on the shoulder of The Wash and its dedicated animal care team is kept busy every summer rescuing and caring for young casualties of the common seal pupping season. As well as its seal hospital and outdoor pools, however, it also boasts penguin and otter enclosures and a breathtaking aquarium with dozens of spectacular displays…including ocean tank with walkthrough underwater tunnel. New this year…Bonnethead Sharks. 

*Hunstanton SEA LIFE & Marine Sanctuary* introduces an amazing Shark Lagoon this year. Watch in awe and learn all about these incredible creatures as they glide all around you as you walk through our underwater tunnel.

Norfolk’s leading marine rescue centre, our seal hospital is busy all year round caring for sick and injured seal pups until, whenever possible, they are well enough to be returned to the wild.

*Bonnethead Sharks* Come face to extraordinary face with our newest residents...from the Hammerhead shark family. A pair of Bonnethead sharks have joined the tropical sharks in our mighty ocean tank. These amazing and fascinating creatures use their spade-like heads to sweep back and forth on the seabed enabling special sensors to detect potential prey buried under the sand.
Other highlights include an incredible otter sanctuary, penguin sanctuary and a whole host of other incredible marine creatures.

Don’t miss our marine hospital where visitors can see our "new arrivals", juveniles in the nursery ward, and the animal care team at work, behind the scenes, tending any sick or injured fish.

Feeding presentations throughout the day make this a memorable day out for the whole family.

*Aims of the Sanctuary:*
To rescue and provide professional treatment for sick, injured or distressed marine animals who are found around our shores – no animal is ever turned away.

To rehabilitate or provide and maintain a home for the unfortunate animals who would otherwise perish in the wild.

To release the rehabilitated marine animals safely back into their natural environment.

To create a greater awareness of the marine environment through the work which is undertaken.

Welcome to the Hunstanton SEA LIFE Sanctuary, inside you will find an amazing variety of animals from Otters and Penguins, to a full Seal rescue facility and hospital. Among the rich diversity of life in the displays are Sharks, Seahorses and Rays.

As you enter our Sanctuary, you will see a gift shop to your left, a cafe to your right, and as you go through the doors in front, you enter a world of amazing marine creatures.

Giant Japanese crabs with a one-metre claw-span star in our brand new attraction. These spider crabs, the world’s biggest species, are capable of growing to an amazing three metres across. That’s big enough to straddle the average family saloon.

Flown in from Japan in special crates, the crabs spent a couple of weeks acclimatising in our Marine Hospital quarantine unit before going on display.

Creatures featured in Claws include a lobster and the well known fiddler crab, and amongst the other residents are prehistoric looking horseshoe crabs.

Massive though they are, even the spider crabs will be glad there’s a few feet of glass and walkway between them and another Claws exhibit, the mantis shrimp, the mantis shrimp has a spring-loaded front claw packing a punch equivalent to the impact of a .22 bullet.

*Opening Times:*
Open every day of the year apart from Christmas Day.
Opening times are 10:00 with last admission 16:00.
Please check with the centre for spring, summer, autumn and winter closing times, as these may vary.