Aquarium visitors complain after highly unusual ‘whale shark’ sighting

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Aquarium enthusiasts in China were shocked to discover that the much-hyped giant whale shark on display here was actually a robot.

The Xiaomieisha Sea World in Shenzhen reopened its doors on October 1 to exhibit the star shark, after being closed for five years for renovations.

During the week-long trial, the marine park, spread over 60,000 square metres, attracted around 100,000 visitors who paid £30 each to enter the aquarium. But much to their disappointment, the majestic shark spinning in the large aquarium turned out to be a man-made imitation.

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Some of the angry visitors demanded a refund, while others took to social media to criticize the marine park. “The location is not big enough and even the whale shark is artificial,” said one of the visitors New York Post.

“At 3 p.m. people were already demanding refunds.”

Sea World defended itself by saying it had spent millions of Chinese yuan to build the robot shark to comply with Chinese laws banning the whale shark trade. In 2019, China banned shark finning, along with the deliberate capture of sharks in the open sea.

The Sea World claimed that it was never their intention to “catfish” visitors. “Even if it is in the interest of animal protection, I would rather they not have one at all than show a fake one,” said a Chinese social media user, according to the newspaper. After.

A Shenyang company announced in August that it had produced the world’s first intelligent robotic whale shark that could swim, float, dive and open and close its mouth. The bionic shark was almost five meters long and weighed 350 kg, state media CGTN reported.

The shark could be controlled remotely and was equipped with features such as program-controlled swimming and bionic multi-joint propulsion. According to CGTN, the robot could swim at a maximum speed of 0.7 meters per second and dive to a depth of 20 meters.

In the past, Chinese zoos have painted dogs to resemble pandas. Some visitors to Shanwei Zoo in Guangdong province this year realized they weren’t looking at pandas when the animals started panting and barking. In one visitor video, one of the ‘pandas’ was visibly panting while resting on a rock, while in another clip a panda with a long tail walked around.

Another zoo in eastern China’s Jiangsu province charged visitors £2.22 for a new “panda dog” exhibit.