Sea Life Park on Oahu: See Sharks, Turtles, and Penguins
People visit Oahu for the pristine beaches, gorgeous tropical mountainsides, glorious rainbows, and a chance to see marine life. If you fall into the last camp, a visit to Sea Life Park in Waimanalo is the perfect place for you. At the aquarium/park, you’ll find sharks, sea turtles, penguins and more.
Join us as we visit Sea Life Park on Oahu.
About Sea Life Park Oahu
Sea Life Park is located in Waimanalo, on Oahu’s southeast shore.
The marine park opened in 1964. It has a little bit of everything for an entertaining day for your family. You can enjoy a stroll through the park (as my daughter and I did) catching various keeper talks and shows throughout the day.
However, you may also arrange hands-on animal encounters. You can book encounters with dolphins, sea lions, and even go snorkeling with sharks.
The park restaurants keep you energized and hydrated throughout your day.
And, of course, there is a sizable gift shop to collect all those precious souvenirs.
How to Get to Sea Life Park Oahu
There are a couple of ways to get to the park. You can drive to the park. There is ample parking on site.
We, however, took the city bus from our resort in Waikiki. The journey by bus took about one hour, and we did need to transfer buses one time. taking the bus is easy, since Sea Life Park is the final stop on the route.
Hours and Fees
Sea Life Park is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily (except Tuesdays).
Admission rates vary. Adults are $59.99. Children are $49.99. However, you do save money by booking online.
There are adjusted rates for military and Kama’aina and both have added online booking savings.
Rates for the animal encounters vary.
Take Advantage of the Habitat Talks
Sea Life Park is a 50-acre facility. That means that everything within the park is close and within easy walking distance.
The advantage to this smaller park is that you can take advantage of all of the habitat talks throughout the day.
Those talks generally follow one after another. And they are not at far ends of the park. So, you can easily hear the penguin habitat talk and then pivot and walk 50 feet to the sea bird habitat, and then a quick walk to the monk seal talk.
This was our favorite aspect of the park. We could garner a ton of information and meet the animals at the same time.
The habitat talks are brief, too. While they held our attention, it would be easy to step away if you have a distracted participant.
Dolphin Lagoon Show
Of course, we found every animal at the park worth viewing. However, the centerpiece of the park has to be the Dolphin Lagoon Show.
The dolphin show is at 12:15 p.m. daily.
During the show, we learned about the dolphins and how they arrived at Sea Life Park.
The dolphin trainers let the mammals perform to a choreographed, musical tale.
While a staff member narrates the show, we watched the dolphins perform skills and tricks that they naturally do in the wild.
See Sharks at Shark Cave
I have a healthy respect for sharks. I could watch them for hours on end.
Our first stop once entering Sea Life Park was to head to Shark Cave.
The exhibit is a 300,000-gallon aquarium showcasing native Hawaiian sharks.
The circular tank is indeed large. And there was a lot of ground to cover. Basically, you enter Shark Cave and then descend down a spiral walkway. So you see the sharks from many angles and at many depths in the tank.
On the outside perimeter of the shark aquarium, we discovered many small tanks holding yellow tang, clown fish, and shrimp.
See Hawaiian Sea Turtles at the Honu Habitat
Honu is the Hawaiian term for a sea turtle. We love nothing more than spotting the sea turtles.
At the park, there are a group of the turtles in a outdoor pool.
We arrived during feeding time. The shelled-creatures were feasting on lettuce. They cautiously approached the vegetable delicacy, but were wary of the human beings standing nearby.
Interestingly, each turtle had an alphabetical letter painted onto their outer shell. So people referred to each turtle by it’s letter name.
Hawaiian Monk Seal
In our household, the favorite Hawaiian animal is probably a toss up between the sea turtles and the Hawaiian Monk Seal. Both are protected by Hawaiian law.
While we have successfully found monk seals on many Hawaiian beaches, we found the one at Sea Life Park a bit elusive.
Every time I tried to take video of snap a picture, the monk seal dove under the water. I lost the opportunity to get a great picture of the animal, despite many, many attempts.
The monk seal wasn’t the only elusive inhabitant. During the seabird sanctuary talk, all the birds turned their beaks away from us.
A Non-Native Intruder
Sea Life Park has mostly animals that make the Hawaiian island chain home.
But, not all of the animals are native to the Hawaiian island.
That includes the Humboldt Penguins. The breed is found in Chile and Peru. However, the penguins we saw during our visit seemed comfortable at the Hawaiian habitat.
The penguins played shy during the habitat talk we listened in on. They did, however, manage to make their way out of their burrow when enticed with some fish for breakfast.
Final Thoughts
We have been to Oahu many times over the past few years. So, we have done a lot of things on the island.
Sea Life Park was a great place to visit on our most recent visit to Oahu.
It may not have been on the top of our list. And it may not be on the top of your list either. After all, there is a lot to see and do on an initial visit to Oahu.
However, if you are looking for a place that may be less crowded than some of those more popular spots, the park might be the stop you need to make. And honestly, I would chose the park over some of the more popular locales people visit on a first trip. I won’t name names, but we did find one stop on our first visit rather “dull.”
I appreciated the focus on indigenous animal. There was great care given to tell the stories of those animals and their importance in the Hawaiian ecosystem.
My daughter and I visited on a Monday morning, so there were not many people on site during our time at the park. I imagine that the park is busier on weekends and school holidays.
On this December Monday morning, the park was exactly what we needed. We had ample time to admire any habitat. And we also learned a lot by following the habitat talks around the site.
And bonus points: Sea Life Park is next to our favorite Oahu beach — Waimanalo.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Visit this Shark Reef in Las Vegas.
Dive into fun at Denver’s Downtown Aquarium.
Take a Ghost Tour of Honolulu with U.S. Ghost Adventures.
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