Animal rights groups have criticised an aquarium for taking in turtles bred on a farm in the Cayman Islands.
Brighton Sea Life Centre in Marine Parade has been housing turtles from the Cayman Turtle Farm.
Activists claim the turtles have been bred using practices that could pose a threat to natural populations.
But the centre says the turtles are being used to educate the public and raise money for a charitable sea turtle rescue centre on the Greek island of Zakynthos.
Toby Forer, general manager of the sea life centre, said the turtles would otherwise have been killed for the local food market.
He said the centre had insisted on a written assurance the farm would not encourage trade in turtle products.
The centre's parent company is shortly to open Britain's first purpose-built turtle rescue facility in Weymouth to care for the increasing numbers of loggerhead turtles becoming stranded on UK shores.
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