Sea Life finally breaks silence on underground penguins

The pressure is mounting for change!

Over the past few months, public pressure on Sea Life London Aquarium has grown to a level that could no longer be ignored.

After dozens of protests outside the aquarium, sustained pressure from a wide range of organisations and campaigners, extensive media coverage, and growing public awareness, including Protect the Wild’s animation viewed more than 2.5 million times, Sea Life’s owner, Merlin Entertainments, has now publicly acknowledged that change is needed.

In a statement released this week, Merlin confirmed that it has made what it calls “meaningful progress in identifying areas for action” after holding a multi-day meeting with independent experts and animal welfare organisations, including Born Free Foundation and Freedom for Animals. The company described those discussions as “open, constructive and rightly challenging at times” and acknowledged that a range of options are now being considered, including further changes to the existing enclosure and the possibility of rehoming the penguins elsewhere.

This is not something Merlin volunteered. It happened because people refused to look away.

Only weeks ago, the company was still insisting there was nothing wrong, claiming the penguins were thriving and that their enclosure was appropriate. At the same time, 75 MPs had joined campaigners in describing the birds as trapped without sunlight or fresh air, and experts were questioning how a species evolved to swim vast distances and dive deep into the ocean could ever have their needs met in an underground tourist attraction.

That narrative of denial is now breaking down.

However, it is important to be clear about where we are. Merlin has not committed to removing the penguins from Sea Life London. It has not committed to ending penguin captivity. It has not committed to a sanctuary. Instead, the company says the issue is complex and that further discussions will continue into early 2026. In the meantime, breeding remains paused, as it has been since 2023.

Born Free’s president, Will Travers, has said that a series of actions have been agreed which prioritise both the short- and long-term welfare of the penguins. Freedom for Animals’ co-director, Laura Walton, has been clear that while release into the wild is not a viable option, serious work is now underway to explore whether a dedicated penguin sanctuary could be created to offer lifetime care in a more natural environment, with real daylight and fresh air.

That shift matters. For the first time, Merlin is being forced to engage with the idea that these animals should not be kept underground for entertainment at all.

But nothing has changed yet for the fifteen Gentoo penguins themselves. They are still confined in an artificial space beneath one of the busiest tourist sites in the country, unable to experience open sky, natural weather, or anything resembling the environment their bodies and instincts are designed for.

This moment is important precisely because it shows what public pressure can achieve, and how quickly powerful companies begin to soften their language when they realise the world is watching. Merlin Entertainments owns and operates major attractions across the UK and beyond. What it does next will set a precedent, not just for these penguins, but for how animals are used across its entire empire.

We will be watching closely, and we will not allow this to quietly fade into a cycle of meetings and delays while the penguins remain where they are. Protect the Wild will continue to stand with Freedom for Animals and Born Free, and we will continue to speak out until these birds are no longer being used as an underground attraction.

Please keep sharing this story, keep talking about it, and keep applying pressure. This campaign has already forced a global entertainment giant to shift its position. Now we need to make sure that shift leads to real, lasting change for the animals who sparked it.

You can sign the petition to Free the 15 Gentoo Penguins here.

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