My First Holidays - Scotland - Scottish Sea Life Sanctuary / Mis primeras vacaciones - Escocia - Santuario escocés a la vida marina

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On our 3rd day of our visit, the weather starting slightly deteriorating, so we put on our jackets, packed our stuff for a picnic, and headed for The Scottish Sea Life Sanctuary.

The place, located on the banks of Loch Creran, is a great choice for a full day out with the children. The premises comprise a very enjoyable mini aquarium plus a busy seal rescue facility, the Shoreline Coffee Shop with fantastic views of the port and the woods behind... On top of that, an adventure play trail and forest walk would compliment your experience as the area is surrounding by an incredibly rich flora, allowing a relaxing and contact with Nature...

The Scottish Sealife Sanctuary at Oban came about around 1980, after a young seal pup was found abandoned by the mother and thereafter brought to the centre by Suffolk Wildlife and Country Park as they were unable to provide the pup in trouble with proper care. Since then, the centre has played an important role in the care and conservation of the Common Seal (Phoca vitulina), providing care and rehabilitaion to abandoned seal pups in the West Coast of Scotland.

This first seal would finally stay at the Sanctuary where visitors can see her in the lochside pools as she became so attached to human contact that it was impossible to return her to her natural environment.

Nowadays more than a dozen seals in trouble from the Scottish West Coast, as well as from the North and from the East accasionally, are treated in the rescue centre to be then released as adults into the wild with a minimum handling from the staff so they will be able to develop and breed once released in their real environment.

We must say, we did enjoy our daily stay at the Scottish Sea Life Sanctuary and our daughter had a lovely day full of things to do and explore. The members of the team were extraordinary and always ready to come and offer advice.

Would definitely recommend it...

You can obtain further information about the centre by visiting their website at:

http://www.sealsanctuary.co.uk/oban1.html

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Photos

Reception and car parking - Grandma and Daddy at the entrance
The entrance to the Scottish Sea Life Sanctuary, though clearly shown from the road, takes you through a short wooded area that takes you in a sudden turn into a whole new world...

Lora - Atlantic harbour Seal
After having made our way thru the reception, leaflet in hands, we rushed our way to the Seal Rescue Centre, as Gareth (a member from the animal care team) was about to start one of the sessions programmed in the centre directed at teaching visitors how the seal rescue team operates. You would learn how to tube-feed a rescued pup in trouble and the first steps into seal rescue...
Pups in the Sanctuary are offered expert veterinary care, and are gradually weaned from a liquid diet into eating whole fish; to be taken after into the outdoor pools where the seals can gain some weight and build up strength before returning to their natural environment...
Once the session is over, we hurried onto the outdoor pools to see how seals are fed...

Lora in the outdoor pool
The coast and sea lochs of Scotland are home to both Grey and Common Seals.
Pups of both species are found in trouble in the area due to a recent storm, or as a result of being injured or separated from their mothers....
The Scottish Sealife Sanctuary at Oban got involved in the care and conservation of the Common Seal (Phoca vitulina) during 1980 after a young pup was abondoned by her mother and brought to the centre by Suffolk Wildlife and Country Park...

Marine Life displays
Several multi-dimensional aquarium displays invite visitors to a first encounter with most of the creatures that dwell beneath the waters of the lochs of the West Highlands and the Atlantic.
Visitors to the centre would find in the different displays everything from shrimps and sea-horses to sharks and stingrays.
A sight not to be missed!!!
Once again the Sanctuary Team would come in our help, explaining the basics of Sealife and helping children interact and get to know, and not be afraid of, these badly known creatures...

View of Loch Creran, Highlands of Scotland (Oban) from the Sanctuary
Loch Creran is a 7 miles long sea loch connecting with the Lynn of Lorn via the narrows of the Isle of Eriska...
It was around this particular loch that the plot for Robert Louis Stevenson's classic tale "Kidnapped" revolves. Myth and legend all come to the rendez-vous in this breathtakingly set loch...
Activities in the loch comprise fly fishing, sea loch fishing, sailing and diving.

Loch Creran
Loch Creran is designated as a Special Area of Conservation (SAC) under the Habitats Directive on the conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora).