Sealed and delivered
New Sea World attraction
WITH a new multimilliondollar home featuring pristine waters and a stunning private beach, it’s no wonder Sea World’s seals are smiling.
The Gold Coast theme park has unveiled Seal Harbour, an interactive seal exhibit due to open in time for the Christmas holidays.
It will be the first seal display at the park for six years, although seals do perform in one of Sea World’s marine shows.
Up to 20 seals and sea lions will call Seal Harbour home and they will live it up in spacious Gold Coast luxury while spectators watch the action from see-through boardwalks.
Sea World’s director of marine sciences, Trevor Long, said a lot of time and effort had gone into designing the exhibit.
‘‘We really wanted to make this a really naturalistic environment,’’ he said.
‘‘We’ve spent a lot of time working on filtration to make sure the water will be crystal clear, there will be sandybottom lagoons and a brilliant white sand beach for them to laze on.
‘‘It’s going to resemble a large oceanic environment.
‘‘It will be like paradise for seals.’’
He said it would be the largest seal exhibit in Australia and continue Sea World’s tradition of worldclass animal spectacles.
The 3.6-million litre pool will be split into three areas, including a nursery for tiny pups.
Onlookers will also have the opportunity to handfeed the seals, who eat up to 20kg of fish a day.
Seal Harbour will be home to Australian and Californian sea lions and New Zealand and sub-Antarctic fur seals.