Days before Christmas, Santa Claus has visited a Shanghai aquarium to spread holiday cheer and raise awareness for ocean environmental protection.

 

Even though Christmas is not officially celebrated in China, the holiday excitement was apparent among the aquarium's visitors.

Santa Claus swam with fish at the Shanghai Ocean Aquarium. The show aims to promote awareness of the need to protect the ocean environment.

Many visitors were inspired to do more to help China's endangered ocean species.

A visitor said, "I think this is a great idea, and it's something we all should do. I just saw the shark photo exhibit and I was so deeply moved, as it firmly showed that we shouldn't eat shark fin. We make changes ourselves; our every little action can help."

The swimming Santa hoped his stunt would open visitors' eyes to the importance of ocean wild life protection.

Swimming Santa Zhou Zhanhong said, "We have a lot of different species living in our aquarium. Some are specially protected and others are rare or endangered species. We are taking this opportunity to let more visitors and guests care for and protect them."

Though this issue is not one that can be solved overnight, the swimming Santa hopes to make an impact on his onlookers and pass on his message at the same time, so that everyone, humans and fish friends alike, can celebrate a happy, safe Christmas.