82 Years in a Tank
Moving Animals documented the world’s oldest captive green sea turtle on behalf of campaigners calling for her freedom to live out her final years.
1 Column
in print media
1 Radio
interview debate
8 Decades
in captivity
The Issue
82-year-old green sea turtle Lulu was reportedly taken from the wild as a tiny hatchling back in the 1940s by a TV advertising agency to star in an advertisement for soap. Spending her eight decades in captivity, Lulu has lived through World War II, Queen Elizabeth II’s entire reign, as well as the first space exploration and the invention of the world wide web.
For the last twenty years, the elderly turtle has been kept in a single tank at Sea Life Brighton, the world’s oldest aquarium. We observed Lulu repeatedly swimming the same lap or sitting motionless in a dark corner of the tank. In the wild, turtles like Lulu swim hundreds or thousands of miles and enjoy basking in the sun.
Now, a campaign has been set up calling for her freedom, and is also asking Sea Life to commit to taking no more turtles into captivity in Lulu’s name.
Public opinion surrounding animals in captivity has shifted in recent years. Sea Life Brighton itself stopped confining dolphins back in 1991, after the cramped conditions repeatedly came under fire.
The Sea Life Trust has more recently focused on supporting the release of captive animals into sanctuaries, including beluga whales Little Grey and Little White who now live together in the first-ever real open-water beluga sanctuary.
Merlin Entertainments, which owns Sea Life Brighton, generated over £1.2 billion in revenue for 2021, and operates other attractions in the UK including Alton Towers and Legoland.
Impact For Change:
Close Sealife
Moving Animals joined forces with Brighton Animal Rights to provide imagery and media attention for their campaign Close Sealife.
Together, we highlighted their work and shared Lulu’s tragic story to the media, while raising awareness of the cruelty of keeping wild animals in captivity for human entertainment. Lulu’s story was covered in a print and online column by the Daily Mirror’s Environment editor, Nada Farhoud, whilst BBC Radio Sussex hosted a debate on the issue on their breakfast show. The story also gained local and animal press.
“Sea Life committed to not exhibiting dolphins back in 1991, and now they need to get with the times and grant that same freedom to Lulu, who has endured an unnatural lifetime of captivity for over eighty years. Sea Life have the capacity and money to help Lulu live her final years in a peaceful and more natural environment than in a small tank beneath Brighton's busy streets,” - a spokesperson for the Brighton Animal Rights group.
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