Since the 18^th April this year, SEA LIFE aquariums, and their parent company, Merlin Entertainments, have come under fire for their secret use of whales in circus-style shows in their Shanghai centre. The company has refused to invest time in meeting with concerned parties to discuss their position and the ultimate fate of the whales – who continue to perform three times a day in the Shanghai SEA LIFE centre. Instead, said a Freedom for Animals spokesperson, SEA LIFE and Merlin have “spent time they could have used to set the story straight in trying to tweak their misleading PR messages to make them fit their clearly hypocritical position”.

Before the SEA LIES campaign was launched by Freedom for Animals, SEA LIFE centres around the UK included statements that company was fundamentally opposed to the keeping of cetaceans (whales and dolphins) in captivity. Furthermore, it was claimed, SEA LIFE was actively campaigning to see dolphinariums banned in Europe. Shortly after the launch of the campaign, which revealed that SEA LIFE itself operates a performing whale show, all but one of the SEA LIFE websites removed the claims of campaigning for a ban, but retained the statement in opposition of cetacean captivity.

Pressure continued to build and SEA LIFE responded, not by addressing the issue of the continued exploitation of whales, but by dropping the SEA LIFE branding from its Shanghai Centre. Parent company, Merlin, now lists the Shanghai Centre as a stand-alone attraction, whereas previously the site had been included in the SEA LIFE group. This cynical PR move was lambasted by Freedom for Animals, who said that the brand the company applies to the centre is of no importance which the cruel circus shows continue.

In a new twist, an apparently altered stance on keeping whales and dolphins in captivity has been devised by Merlin entertainment’s PR department which is featured on the SEA LIFE brand’s main website. The statement reads:

“SEA LIFE believes that the highly evolved sensory abilities and complex social structures of whales and dolphins makes them unsuited to captivity and that they should never be taken from the wild for the purpose of captive entertainment or display”.

This statement is not currently reflected on any of the other SEA LIFE websites which still host the firmer statement against all cetacean captivity. A Freedom for Animals spokesperson voiced concerns over the suggestion in the new statement that only wild-caught cetaceans were deemed worthy of protection by SEA LIFE, and noted that the whales used by the company were, in fact, wild caught some years prior to Merlin’s acquisition of the Shanghai site.

Liz Tyson, Freedom for Animals Director, said:

“This continuous moving around of words, shifting of statements and manipulating of messages may be keeping the PR departments at SEA LIFE and Merlin busy but it is doing nothing to address the problem; which is the company’s ongoing use of whales in cruel circus-style shows. A company that actively exploits cetaceans in captivity for profit on a daily basis cannot pretend to be a champion for the rights of the same animals. If SEA LIFE and Merlin want to oppose the exploitation of captive cetaceans, they must first end their own exploitation of captive cetaceans. The situation really is that simple”.

Ms Tyson called upon Merlin to take heed of the 5,000+ people who have demanded that the company not only tells the truth about the whale circus as it stands at the moment, but also to make public their plans for the whales in the future and guarantee their safe retirement.

She added:

“Merlin claims that it has the best interest of the animals at heart and is working “tirelessly” to find a long-term solution for the animals in question. If this is the case, it begs the question: why is the company categorically refusing to share that information?”