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The Georgia aquarium has announced that the public will be allowed to swim with the captive whale sharks in their aquarium. The “swim with gentle giants” programme allows visitors to swim or SCUBA dive with whale sharks in their Ocean Voyager aquarium exhibit. The cost announced for the swim program is $190 and the dive program is $290.
The whale shark exhibit at the Georgia Aquarium has been the subject of some controversy since it first opened in 2006 with many people being critical of the internment of young whale sharks in captivity. The positive side of having any pelagic animal in captivity is the public awareness it creates; in this case the Georgia Aquarium also runs several scientific research programmes on the sharks in the aquarium. Initially the aquarium held two male sharks but two females were introduced in June of 2006.
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whale shark in the Georgia Aquarium Ocean Voayager
exhibit.
Image Georgia Aquarium |
Sadly, one of captive male whale sharks died on the 12th of January 2007, but a further two males were added on June 1st; however, all was not well and less than two weeks later the surviving male from the original group also died.
The current “swim with gentle giants” programme is once again raising concerns within conservation circles with people asking how such a blatantly commercial programme can be viewed as either research or
education and querying whether the original goals of the
programme have changed?
While whale sharks have been kept in captivity in several aquaria, it is apparent that they do not survive well in these conditions. The longest surviving whale shark lived for 12 years in Okinawa’s Churaumi Aquarium and while this may indeed be an amazing feat of animal husbandry, this is not long for an animal that has a life expectancy in the
wild of 100+ years, according to Fish-Base.
To air your views or see those of others visit the whale shark forum.
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