Beluga and Puffin Sanctuary Visitor Centre with Aquarium

The Beluga and Puffin Sanctuary was our first stop on the island and the main reason for our visit. Although the belugas are not yet in their permanent home, we had the ability to see them in their temporary tank in the visitor center. We enjoyed a very informative tour of the facility, led by an animated guide! Best of all, he recommended a great spot for puffin viewing on the island. He asked if we were staying the night, and offered us boxes to help rescue wayward pufflings! (When they leave their nests in August, some get confused by the city lights and head inland instead of out to sea, so townspeople help get them where they belong.) Unfortunately, we were only there for the day, but when we got to the puffin viewing location, we saw several locals release pufflings they had rescued the previous night! Truly a highlight of our trip.

Coming here was the only part of our Iceland trip I regret. It is WAY too expensive for what it is: a 10 minute walk through of some puffins and whales in pretty small spaces and some additional aquariums. Definitely not worth your time or money, especially when there are countless amazing experiences available in Iceland.

Tried to get a refund as we were in Vik and the ferry across to the island was canceled due to bad weather and high winds. I explained thus to the company, but wanted me to reschedule, not possible as we were going back to Reykjavik and flying home the next day. I read the ferry notice that was sent to those who bought tickets. She voukd care less.

Visiting the sanctuary was a highlight of our trip to Iceland! Not only did we get to delight in watching the puffins zip around their tank and being fed, the belugas had been brought into their observation tank for the winter. From what we understood, they spend the summer in the protected bay and are brought in for greater protection over the colder periods. We learnt a lot and were happy to be supporting such a great initiative. All animals seemed to be extremely well cared for.

A bit disappointing and quite sad. The Puffin sanctuary is small and limited in scope. Though it is wonderful to see then, their containment space is lacking and sad. The Baluga Whales are equally in a small, contained space. They were 'rescued' and provided an actual cove in the ocean, but are being kept in a 'fish tank' of sorts. Again, wonderful to see them, but it is a sad way to keep these beautiful creatures. The Aquarium is small and doesn't offer a lot, but what they do offer is interesting to look at an read.

Don’t go to this. Not only is it a ridiculously expensive ‘donation’ to get in, but you’ll leave as unhappy as the beluga whales being held captive here. There are a few exhibits of starfish and sea anemone that you’d expect from any Sea Life centre, and some extremely sad looking puffins (they never do well in captivity, losing all their colour from their beak and feet) and s single Guillemot in a tiny enclosure that’s hard to see in to. There’s a lot of information on how the beluga whales got to Iceland from China in 2019, and beaming photos of John Bishop, but little on why after 6 years, they are still in an indoor tank or why the outdoor ‘sea pen’ has failed. Now Little Grey & Little White do repeated laps around their restricted space and you can peer in through the filthy glass of a ‘animal welfare observation window’. Handily, the centre has decided to keep all the lights on in the corridor where the window is, so there’s a better chance of seeing just your own reflection. The whole thing takes less than 15 minutes and lacks any of the charm of the old natural history museum that preceded it. Don’t think that this is a ‘sanctuary’ of any sort, or that Little Grey and Little White have been rescued. Instead, they’ve just been moved from one tank to another and Sea Life (Merlin) are just after your cash.

The tour was £20 a head and tells the story of how the money is for charity and is used to save the beluga whales from a life in captivity. A story is told about how whales aren’t supposed to live in captivity and that it is horrible for an animal. Around the corner from this is the two whales living in captivity in a pool with a window that you can observe them. Seems a lot like an aquarium to me not a sanctuary.

What a great tour to learn so much about the beluga whales little white and little gray! These guys are really lucky to have such a dedicated team working to get them back into the ocean!

Very disappointing. We had some time to fill between other activities on the island. For the cost (about $100US for a family of 4) we spend MAYBE 20 minutes there. There were no puffins, some tanks with small coral, starfish and other sea plants. And then a sad, small window to see the 2 beluga whales swim by. It was hard to see much because the window is in a hallway and very hard to have more than 5-6 people looking at once. It mentions that they have a large area to live in the bay- but from talking to locals. That doesn’t happen anymore and doesn’t sound like there is much of a plan to move them there. Yes, the money supports the “sanctuary” but it really just feels like a money grab to support to pretty gift-shop and not actually better the lives of these whales in their possession.

It was very nice to see the belugas through the window and after a while we discovered that they saw us too. Then we'd spin around and jump and they'd do it really crazy and squeak with pleasure. I've never seen that before. Also the puffins were mega cute. The staff of the Centre were very helpful and answered all questions.