Marine Life Park

Marine Life Park (Chinese: 海洋生物园) is a part of Resorts World Sentosa, Sentosa, Singapore and houses the largest oceanarium in the world. The 8 ha park houses two attractions, the S.E.A Aquarium and the Adventure Cove Waterpark.

S.E.A Aquarium


S.E.A Aquarium, the world's largest aquarium, contains a total of 45000000 l of water for more than 100,000 marine animals of over 800 species. The aquarium comprises 10 zones with 49 habitats. The centerpiece of the Aquarium is the Open Ocean tank with more than 18000000 l and 50,000 animals. It has the world's largest viewing panel, 36 m wide and 8.3 m tall, which is intended to give visitors the feeling of being on the ocean floor.

Collection
The S.E.A Aquarium houses the world's largest collection of manta rays, including the only giant oceanic manta ray in captivity. It also showcases 24 Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins, scalloped hammerhead sharks, the Japanese spider crab, and relatively uncommonly-exhibited species such as the guitarfish and the chambered nautilus.

Adventure Cove Waterpark
The Adventure Cove Waterpark features six water slides, including the region’s first hydro-magnetic coaster, Riptide Rocket; the Bluwater Bay wave pool and tubing along the Adventure River. The 620 m river, one of the world’s longest lazy-rivers, have 14 themed scenes of tropical jungles, grottoes, a surround aquarium and more.

Controversies
The resort originally planned to include whale sharks, but conceded that it might not be feasible to house them and has dropped the plan. There is ongoing controversy over captures of wild dolphins from Solomon Islands and the facilities in which they are kept in Subic Bay, Philippines. On 14 October 2012, Quezon City court issued a 72-hour temporary environment protection order to block the re-export of the dolphins to Marine Life Park, following a civil rights suit filed by animal rights groups. RWS spokesperson reiterated that the resort's acquisition of the 25 Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins adhere to regulations governed by the United Nations Environment Programme under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.

Another appeal was made and the exports to Singapore were temporarily held. When the hold had expired, RWS exported the dolphins while the court appeal was ongoing. On the flight to Singapore, one of the dolphins, Wen Wen died. This brings to three the number of dolphins that have died prior to the opening of the Dolphin Island section within the park.