Activists call for Ocean Park boycott after deaths of animals

Animal rights activists have called on people to boycott Ocean Park until it promises to handle the deaths of its charges openly.

The campaign comes a week after six scalloped hammerhead sharks at the park's Grand Aquarium died one by one in the space of seven hours.

"We would like the park to implement a sunshine policy that would ensure the death of an animal is publicised within 24 hours," said activist Roni Wong, spokesman for the Dolphin Family, the organising group behind the Conscientious Boycott of Ocean Park Movement.

Wong called on the park to issue a suspected cause of death to the public within a week of an animal's death and to publish a full medical report within 21 days. The campaign is also calling for the park to be open about what animals it is acquiring and why.

The six dead scalloped hammerheads - all about five years old - were among 15 imported from Japan in late 2010. One died within a year due to difficulty adapting to the new environment.

The park said the recent deaths were the result of disease with "rapid morbidity and high mortality". It said it had notified the Agricultural, Fisheries and Conservation Department and was investigating.