Nordsøen Oceanarium: The wildest underwater world

If you're on holiday in North Jutland, you should invite yourself, your family, friends and children on a fantastic journey into the deep waters of the North Sea at the North Sea Oceanarium, where you can get to know all the amazing fish and underwater animals that live hundreds of metres below the surface. Northern Europe's largest aquarium is located in Hirtshals and is one of North Jutland's most popular tourist attractions with no less than 200,000 annual visitors.

- The North Sea Oceanarium is the story of life in the North Sea - and ‘only’ that. There are no sharks or fish from hot and exotic destinations, but fish, wildlife, fauna and flora based on what lies beneath the surface of the North Sea. The North Sea Oceanarium has both indoor and outdoor pools and activities, offering great experiences whether it's summer or winter,’ says Sylvia Berglund, Marketing Manager at the North Sea Oceanarium.

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Play and cool learning

The North Sea Oceanarium opened for the first time in 1984 and will soon celebrate its 40th anniversary. The original focus of the centre was fish and fishing, but over the years it has been developed and expanded into a comprehensive experience centre where play, learning and interactive exhibitions for all age groups are the central focal point. Here you can experience the specialised sunfish up close, and every day the seals and fish are fed in their pools.

- In total, we have six million litres of clean seawater in all our aquariums, which is continuously replaced via filter systems with pipes and pumps. The different aquariums are customised for the fish and animals that live there - in terms of living conditions and temperatures. Our largest aquarium holds no less than 4.5 million litres of water and is adapted for schooling fish that need very special conditions - including an oval aquarium. And this is the thinking behind everything here at the centre: we try to make as exact a copy of nature as possible, so that it is possible for guests to have an experience as if they were diving among the animals or walking around at the bottom of the sea - but with their feet firmly planted on the ground,’ says Sylvia Berglund and concludes:

- ‘Our exhibitions are structured in such a way that families can have a very special experience together - whether the children are 2, 7 or 13 years old. Or whether you already have a lot of knowledge and perhaps consider yourself a ‘nerd’. The North Sea Oceanarium can be experienced at many different levels of expertise, but play and learning the ‘cool’ way is always at the centre.

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