Letter from Marine Life Park

Dear all,

Thank you for the interest that you have expressed towards our Marine Life Park.  Although the feedback we have received till now is not always positive, it shows how concerned everyone is towards the success of the Marine Life Park and its ability to balance the need to educate the public on marine conservation while at the same time not doing anything to harm the marine environment.

As of today, over 3,000 of you have written to us and we hope you can spare a few minutes for our side of the story. As an organization that is committed to inspire the conservation of the ocean through education, we fully understand your concerns with regards to the feasibility of whale sharks in captivity. 

That is why we have been, and still are - to this date - considering alternatives for our overall Marine Life Park design plans, while simultaneously peer reviewing our animal collection and exhibits content.

While we go about our work, we also want to highlight that the whale shark exhibit at the Marine Life Park was submitted as part of the winning bid in an international competition for the Integrated Resort on Sentosa in late 2006. As such, the organization is bound to deliver the integrity of the bid, and any proposed replacement for the whale sharks must be defensible in that it must be viable and be as broad, if not compelling, in its appeal to bring in visitors to Singapore - the reason Singapore decided to have the integrated resorts.

Last week, we put out a press statement specifying that plans for the Marine Life Park are still being finalized and options are being explored.  Two things are being done right now: consolidating the education and conservation studies of what aquariums have done for potential collection species, and assessing how the Marine Life Park and its conservation and research programs might contribute further to the scientific knowledge of the species.  

We do not take these undertakings lightly and as such, we need time to investigate all available options to provide Singapore with a world-class Marine Life Park.   The process of replacing promised attractions in a winning bid is neither simple nor unilateral. Papers, presentations, permits and many rounds of fine-tuning and debate are required.  We welcome ideas at csr@rwsentosa.com.

We apologise for not being able to reply singularly to everyone.  Do visit our website http://www.rwsentosa.com/en_marinelifepark.html to know us better.  There, you can also read about our conservation efforts in both the marine and environmental fields. The Marine Life Park is committed to engage all persons who share our goal: the conservation of the oceans and it inhabitants.  Our commitment has not changed. 

 

Yours sincerely,

The Marine Life Park team

I am so confused right now. Seriously, if this whale shark saga were to pull through, I would not be able to resist visiting the Marine Park myself. As much as I would love to see one in the wild, I know that seeing one in the Park would most likely be the answer to my prayer.

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