Aquatic Zoos - Captive Animals Protection Society
Aquatic Zoos - Captive Animals Protection Society
Aquatic Zoos - Captive Animals Protection Society
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Figure 73. Examples of visitor misconduct found in UK public aquaria (see text). From left to right and top to bottom, touching<br />
water, touching a ray, holding a starfish by its arm when unsupervised, stepping on an exhibit to lean over a tank, using flash very<br />
close to animals face (note the keeper passing by behind unconcerned), and dipping a watch in the water to tease a shark.<br />
What visitors are allowed to do or not do in UK public aquaria varies depending on the centre. Some<br />
public aquaria fully take on the zoo regulations and do not allow any physical interaction (at least on<br />
paper), while others allow such interactions under supervision of qualified staff (which is allowed by the<br />
zoo regulations, although not encouraged). Because the Secretary of State’s Standards of Modern Zoo<br />
Practice clearly state that unsupervised contacts should not be allowed, it was assumed that any<br />
unsupervised contact that took place in a public aquarium that authorises supervised contact with some<br />
species in some tanks was in fact an unauthorised contact.<br />
Any incident that was witnessed but could not be recorded was not counted, since the analysis was<br />
made by viewing the tapes only.<br />
As can be seen in table 17, 277 cases of visitors behaving in a way contrary to the official rules of the<br />
public aquaria visited were recorded during this investigation. From those, over 200 cases were of<br />
‘unauthorised contact’ with animals. In more than half of the public aquaria investigated (55%, n=21)<br />
‘unauthorised contact’ was recorded, and in at least 68% of the UK public aquaria visitors behaved in a<br />
way contrary to rules set by the public aquarium they are visiting, which could put themselves and the<br />
animals in the aquarium at risk. However, in some public aquaria there were not many visitors during the<br />
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