What’s that coming out of the sea? Is it a monster?

As the finishing touches were being put into place before the Sea Monsters exhibition opens at the BIC this Saturday, the Daily Echo took a look behind the scenes.

Visitors can get up close and personal with, amongst others, replicas of a basking shark, liopleurodon or trilobite fossils.

You can physically touch a part of history and see the great scale of these monsters of the sea for yourself.

David Woodman, chief engineer of Avalanche Studios, where the models were made, said: “This is all hands-on. We have lots of interactive things.”

He added: “Kids can run around and get their hands dirty.

“We’re going to have a sandpit where children can dig for their own fossils and paint their own dinosaurs.”

Leanne Matthews, manager of Boscombe Albion under-8s football club, brought the children down for an exclusive look around.

She said: “When we got tickets to see the exhibition, we weren’t expecting to see it in the making today, but the kids have had a good time and it’s great for them to see it as a group.”

Gavin Howard, director of the Sea Monsters exhibition, said: “It’s all about the creatures that have, at some time, survived on this Earth.

“We have a plethora of things we can bring to life. We had to have ones with teeth and ones which look friendlier.

“We start making the image of the creature by scanning the fossil and then we use CNC technology to build up a scale computer graphic.

From there we can make the model out of various soft materials such as polystyrene, fibreglass and silicone.

“What will make this different is that things will be arriving here each week.

“One of my favourites will be a big ‘green screen’ where you can see yourself next to a Sea Monster.”

The show – part of the BBC Walking with Dinosaurs exhibition runs from this Saturday to Sunday September 11.