Virgin Holidays will no longer offer tickets to tourist attractions featuring captive whales and dolphins — and SeaWorld fired back at the travel site for succumbing to “pressure from animal activists.”

The travel company has announced the new policy will “come into effect as soon as possible” and will impact major parks such as SeaWorld, The Sun reported.

“Virgin Holidays has decided to stop selling and promoting captive cetacean (whale and dolphin) experiences, as we look to focus on offering customers more natural, at-distance encounters with these animals,” Joe Thompson, Virgin Holidays’ managing director, said in a statement. “This decision means that we will be ending our long term partnerships with the likes of SeaWorld, Discovery Cove and other similar facilities.”

But SeaWorld recoiled at the company’s decision, saying that it was disappointed to see Virgin “succumb to pressure from animal activists” whom it claimed “mislead and manipulate marine mammal science to advance their agendas.”

“No company does more to protect marine mammals and advance cetacean research, rescue and conservation,” SeaWorld said.

Virgin’s decision comes amid criticism from animal activists who claim that SeaWorld’s forced captivity of whales has harmful impacts on their behavior and health.

The marine park first came under scrutiny in 2010 when a trainer, Dawn Brancheau, was fatally mauled by a captive orca named Tilikum.