It was a whale of a fail.
Just when you thought it was safe to go back to the water park: A Chinese aquarium was ripped by angry fans after its much-hyped giant shark was revealed to be a robot.
The “deep”-fake occurred at the Xiaomeisha Sea World in Shenzhen, which opened on Oct. 1 following a five-year renovation, Jam Press reported.
During its week-long dry run, the 645,000-square-foot ocean zoo attracted around 100,000 visitors, who paid around $40 to enter the wet wonderland.
Visitors were eager to check out the theme park’s star attraction, a whale shark, the world’s largest fish, capable of attaining over 60 feet in length.
However, many felt cheated after realizing that the so-called regal sea beast was actually just a mechanical doppelgänger.
Photos taken through the tank glass show the fishy robot, which sports obvious gaps in its torso where its segments have been connected, evoking a prop from a cheesy SyFy channel shark movie.
Outraged over the great white lie, park-goers flooded Xiaomeisha with a sharknado of criticism online.
“The venue isn’t large enough, and even the whale shark is artificial,” griped one disillusioned whale shark watcher online. “By 3 o’clock, people were already demanding refunds.”
“The most disappointing part was the whale shark exhibit,” wrote another 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.”
Xiaomeisha reps have since addressed the criticism, claiming that the robo-shark — which cost millions of Chinese yuan to construct — was not devised to “catfish” visitors but rather to adhere to laws banning the trade of whale sharks.
This shark tale didn’t make the artificial fin-telligence easier to swallow, however.
“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,” griped one.
The same critic took issue with the park’s live critter exhibits as well.
“The fish care was not professional enough. I noticed that some of the fish in the tanks had white spots,” they wrote.
“Most people wouldn’t notice, but anyone who’s kept tropical fish knows that’s white spot disease,” they added. “Some of the fish didn’t appear to be in good health.”
Speaking of knockoffs, this is far from the first time someone has felt conned by Chinese zoo critters.
Multiple animal parks in China came under fire earlier this year for spray-painting dogs to look like pandas because they didn’t have the actual animals.
