The visitors were left stunned and angry when they found that the much-hyped giant whale shark was actually a robot in an aquarium in China.
This “deep-fake” incident happened at the Xiaomeisha Sea World in Shenzhen which had opened to the public on October 1 after undergoing a five-year renovation, reported Jam Press.
The aquarium had a week-long dry run and around 100,000 visitors came to the 645,000-square-foot ocean zoo. The visitors had to pay $40 to enter the wet wonderland.
Visitors were looking forward to the star attraction of the theme park which was the whale shark – the largest fish in the world – believed to grow to 60 feet in length.
Visitors feel cheated, aquarium authorities claim ‘were adhering to laws’
After the visitors realised that the regal sea beast was actually a robot, they felt cheated.
As the outrage widened, Xiaomeisha also had to face criticism online.
“The venue isn’t large enough, and even the whale shark is artificial. By 3 o’clock, people were already demanding refunds,” said a user.
“The most disappointing part was the whale shark exhibit,” wrote another user on the social media platform Xiaohongshu.
“When I heard the name, I was full of anticipation, but when I arrived, I saw a mechanical whale shark. It’s not interesting at all,” commented a third user.
Addressing the criticism, the representatives of Xiaomeisha said that the robo-shark — which had cost millions of Chinese yuan — was created to adhere to laws which ban the trade of whale sharks and was not aimed to “catfish” visitors.
“Even though it’s for the sake of animal protection, I’d rather they didn’t have one at all than show a fake one,” said a user.
“The fish care was not professional enough. I noticed that some of the fish in the tanks had white spots,” wrote another user.
“Most people wouldn’t notice, but anyone who’s kept tropical fish knows that’s white spot disease. Some of the fish didn’t appear to be in good health,” a third user stated.
(With inputs from agencies)
