Sea Life: VIP Turtle Feeding in Manchester

Before COVID reared its ugly head one of the things our children loved most about travelling abroad was the chance to see, and sometimes feed, exotic animals. We’ve had some really great times swimming with wild manatees in Florida, feeding giraffes and rhinos at Busch Gardens and snorkelling with tropical fish and stingrays at Discovery Cove.

It’s experiences like these that they’ve missed most of all, but while looking for an adventure for our daughter’s birthday recently I was pleased to discover that Sea Life in Manchester has a Turtle Feeding VIP Experience that’s a lot closer to home and that I just knew would put a wide grin on my girl’s face.

Here’s how our trip went.

Our VIP Turtle Feeding Experience didn’t start until 10:45 and the doors of Sea Life Manchester open at 10am so we were able to spend a bit of time exploring the depths before the start of the session.

The visit started, appropriately enough, at a mock-up beach, complete with projections of tiny turtles hatching from their eggs and then making their way into the sea. At this stage Ella still didn’t know that she was going to feed turtles, so it was a nice introduction to them for her and the presentation was really informative about the lives of green sea turtles.

Next, we moved onto the Rocky Hideout, where Ella came face to face with a moray eel and a puffer fish. The eel tank was great fun, because Ella was able to crawl into a small cave and then pop up in the middle of the tank (shielded from the water by a glass dome of course). She loved this so much that I thought for a while we might not make it to the turtles in time.

After we’d finally convinced Ella to leave the eels behind we passed Jellyfish Seas, where she had fun pressing buttons on the tank that seem to change the jellyfishes colours, press one button and they’re red, press another and they’re green.

Moving on we passed Shark Shipwreck and met another eel, this time a green moray eel, curled up inside a large vase, then dozens of clown fish (or Nemo’s as they’re more popularly called these days) at the Coral Reefs zone.

The excitement was building as we walked through the centrepiece of any good aquarium, the Ocean Tunnel, where we found ourselves completely surrounded by sharks, rays and of course the two green turtles we’d come here to feed.

Ella didn’t want to leave the tunnel, but it was already 10:45 so I picked her up and carried her, protesting, to the soft play which was our designated meeting point for the VIP experience. Of course, once she saw the soft play she wanted to go on that, and was initially unhappy about us having to follow a member of staff behind the scenes.

Needless to say she turned her frown upside down once we finally told her why we were there…TO FEED THE TURTLES! And she was all smiles for the next 15 minutes.

There are two green sea turtles at Sea Life and they’re called Cammy and Ernie. Cammy, the female, is around 25 years old and definitely rules the roost in this aquarium. In fact they have to be fed separately, so that 20 year old Ernie actually manages to get a nibble for himself.

The experience starts with a target shaped like a cross being dropped into the water. This was Cammy’s cue to swim over to us and delight Ella with a close encounter that wasn’t separated by Perspex. The smile on Ella’s face was well worth the £65 that this experience costs (especially when you consider that entry for two is included and standard entry is £17.50 anyway).

The bucket of food wasn’t as much to Ella’s liking, for the simple reason it was full of squid as well as broccoli and cabbage. She had zero intention of touching the squid, even with the gloves we were provided. Luckily the trainer obliged by feeding Cammy the squid and leaving Ella with a bucket full of greens that she didn’t mind touching.

The next 15 minutes were wonderful, as Cammy bobbed on the surface and Ella threw her lettuce leaves and broccoli florets. Cammy did occasionally swim off, and at one point gave a shark a whack with her fin when it got too close to her food. She’s definitely a matriarch!

For his part Ernie kept a respectful distance, as he didn’t want the same treatment that Cammy dished out to that shark! But again, seeing him without the Perspex in front of us was wonderful and Ella was able to spot the fact that Cammy had a different shaped pattern on her head than Ernie. “Well spotted,” the trainer told her. Have you noticed any other differences? Ella did, she noticed that Cammy was slightly bigger and had a longer tail, and of course that she was the one eating all the food!

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