Aquatic Zoos - Captive Animals Protection Society

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