It opened in May 1998, and is dedicated to understanding and maintaining the integrity of the marine ecosystem of Alaska through research, rehabilitation, conservation, and public education.

It is the only facility in the world specifically dedicated to studying the northern marine environment and the only one designed at the outset to combine research with public education and visitor components.

[citation needed] The Alaska SeaLife Center is a private, non-profit corporation with approximately 105 full-time employees and a staff of volunteers and interns.

The Alaska SeaLife Center provides care for sick and injured marine animals, yielding important information about wildlife populations.

This program also assists with monitoring the status of wild populations through the scientific study of ill or orphaned marine mammals and birds.

The center's public exhibits include a touch tank where visitors can touch small marine invertebrates such as sea stars and sea urchins in a shallow pool, an aviary for the center's numerous seabirds with a two-story diving pool, also housing a wolf eel and several species of large saltwater fish.

Other tanks and exhibits include harbor seals, Steller's sea lions, various nutibranches, moon jellies, gruntsculpins, and Giant Pacific octopuses.

The exhibit also offers an array of interpretive installations and fun activities for the entire family, in addition to seeing eye-to-eye with octopuses, sea lions, seals, and a number of fish and bird species.