Boulogne-sur-Mer Attractions

Venue: Nausicaa    When: Daily

Set in a vast indoor centre, Nausicaa is a truly magnificent venture, home to over 10,000 sea creatures. Visitors can learn all about the seas and oceans of the world in a hands-on experience that combines education and entertainment.

Through the immense aquariums of sharks, sea lions and shoals of mullets (unfortunately not together), visitors learn to appreciate the wildlife in the sea and then hopefully leave with a desire to begin treating our underwater buddies as more than just seafood.

Nausicaa's motto is: "The sea is part of our planet. It matters to all of us". With both temporary and permanent exhibitions, the centre draws you into the water and submerges you in information. To begin with, the visitor is taught exactly how nourishing the seas are for humans. A huge Touch Tank full of skate, turbot, cod and dogfish is open-topped for visitors to stroke its inhabitants. The Ring of the Future symbolises everything that the venture is about - how six billion humans changed the world, so six billion can restore it.

By 2020, over three-quarters of the world's population will be living within 60km of the sea. This expansion will create a huge strain on the biological balance of our coasts. A 3D film at the end of the centre calls for sea management and an understanding of the need for biodiversity. With over 600 million tourists heading to the coast every year, there is no doubt that some balance and constraint is called for.