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The lobby of the Alaska SeaLife Center, a prime attraction in Seward. Loosely affiliated with the University of Alaska Fairbanks, the center conducts research on marine mammals, fish, and seabirds. It also serves as a marine interpretive center, with lots of tanks containing live marine mammals, fish, invertebrates, and a seabird aviary. Our Tuesday evening banquet will be held at the SeaLife Center, and we will have a guided tour Monday afternoon led by the Center's education director, Amy Haddow. Until she moved to Alaska last year, Amy spent six years as Connecticut Sea Grant's marine educator. She says she'll give us the Royal Treatment. | ||
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The Alaska SeaLife Center gift shop. The shop sells several Alaska Sea Grant publications, posters, and videos. | ||
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Harbor seal in a tank at the SeaLife Center. The $50 million Alaska SeaLife Center opened in spring, 1998. It was built primarily with money from the $900 million Exxon Valdez oil spill court settlement, and with privately raised funds. It recently received $5 million in federal money to conduct a research program in the North Pacific. | ||
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Tufted puffin in a holding pond at the Alaska SeaLife Center. Birds at the SeaLife Center were either hatched or raised as chicks at places like the Central Park Zoo, Sea World Orlando, and the Oregon Coast Aquarium. Pigeon guillemots at the SeaLife Center were raised there as part of a research project. |
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The Alaska SeaLife Center is constructed so that visitors can view Steller sea lions, harbor seals, and seabirds from above water and below. Through a contact he made with the company while working for Michigan Sea Grant, Kurt Byers suggested the architect, Cambridge Seven of Boston, that was initially hired by the Seward Association for the Advancement of Marine Science to design the SeaLife Center. After producing the original design, Cambridge Seven dropped out of the project when they thought money would not be forthcoming to complete construction. | ||
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Steller sea lion viewed through one of the observation windows at the Alaska SeaLife Center. | ||
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