Fisheries and Maritime Museum

Big seal pool, fishing-boat history, and an aquarium of North Sea species

The Fisheries and Maritime Museum (Fiskeri- og Søfartsmuseet) sits on the seafront a couple of hundred metres from the Men at Sea sculpture, and most visitors take in both on the same trip. It is a serious museum despite the family-friendly seal pool out front: the permanent exhibitions trace North Sea fishing from the Viking era to the present, with reconstructed deck cabins, scale models, and a startling amount of information about herring.

The seal pool and aquarium occupy a separate wing. The pool houses a colony of harbour and grey seals with regular feeding sessions; the aquarium tanks display the species that actually live a few hundred metres offshore — turbot, cod, plaice, mackerel — rather than the tropical fish that fill most aquariums. Allow at least half a day, longer with children.

things to do museum
A story
The harbour seals are the unannounced stars of the museum. Twice a day at feeding time the keepers tell their backstories one by one — orphaned, blind, washed ashore as pups — while the audience presses against the glass. Several of the seals have been here for over twenty years and recognise their handlers' voices.