Have you ever gone to an aquarium and noticed that they never have a great white shark?
Nature’s most fascinating predator is missing.
Here are the top 7 reasons why no aquarium has a great white shark.
7.
They Need A Lot of Space
Many people visit aquariums hoping to catch a glimpse of sharks up close.
Especially the great white, but no exhibit like this exists anywhere in the world.
Since 1955, numerous attempts have been made by aquariums to place great white sharks into
captivity.
Time and time again, however, the outcomes have been unsuccessful, and it never turns
out well for the shark.
One of the main reasons for this is the great white’s need for more space than an aquarium
can provide.
Great whites can weigh over 1,000 kilograms and measure anywhere from 4-6 meters long.
But we keep Orcas in captivity in small pools, so why not a great white?
Great white sharks are migratory open-water fish.
It’s not uncommon for great white sharks to swim hundreds of kilometers in just a few
days.
Sharks that have been tagged by scientists have been known to end up on the other side
of the world.
One shark that was being tracked by scientists swam from Africa to Australia and back again
in just nine months - a round trip amounting to about 20,000 kilometers.
Additionally, great whites must constantly swim forward so water can pass through their
gills - a necessary process for obtaining oxygen that separates them from most other
species of fish, who get their oxygen by opening and closing their mouths.
Constant swimming is also essential for maintaining their body temperature.
While swimming, great whites tend to only change direction when they want to, further
complicating the ability to confine one to a tank.
A massive tank would be necessary by default due to their size.
All factors taken into consideration, even a standard whale tank would be too small to
accommodate a great white.
They seem kind of small for whales too..
In 2004, the Monterey Bay Aquarium attempted to house a great white in a one million gallon,
35-foot deep tank, especially designed for open water fish.
They were required to use a small, 4-foot-long shark, because even a tank of this size was
inhospitable for a full-grown great white shark, and it still ended badly, but I’ll
tell you more about that in a bit.
If an aquarium had a great white shark, would you make an effort to go see it?
Let us know in the comments!!
6.
Captivity Causes Depression
Marine biologists believe that because we are unable to create a suitable artificial
environment for great whites in captivity causes them to become depressed.
They aren’t at all happy with their new environment.
As you know, great whites are salt water creatures and require a specific balance of saline in
their tank water - something that is difficult for aquariums to maintain accurately.
This imbalance, along with the inevitable lack of space provided by confinement, likely
contribute to the tendency for great whites to become depressed and lethargic.
First they can barely move, and then, they can’t even breathe properly.
A depressed great white shark will stop eating and become increasingly aggressive.
In 1981, a great white was caught by a fisherman and given to SeaWorld in San Diego.
They put the 5-foot, 100 pound shark in a 400,000 gallon shark exhibit.
The shark never ate on its own in captivity and toward the end of its stay at SeaWorld,
the shark experienced convulsions and had difficulty swimming.
Employees tried to save the shark’s life by force-feeding mackerel to it and injecting
it with nutrients.
They also administered oxygen to the shark and assisted it with swimming.
Their attempts, however, were unsuccessful and the shark passed away 16 days later.
Biologists and researchers said they were able to learn a lot about shark behaviour
and medicine through this experience.
It surpassed the previous record of another great weight that only survived 96 hours.
The Monterey Bay Aquarium acquired a great white shark in 1984 - one of its numerous
tries at exhibiting the apex predator.
The shark died 11 days later because, like many others, it refused to eat.
The first time aquarium staff managed to get a great white to feed in captivity was in
2004 at the Monterey Bay Aquarium.
They were able to keep her in a tank for 198 days, however, the shark was released into
the wild because it became aggressive and killed two of its tank mates.
Not sure if you are supposed to keep a great white in a tank with other sharks, it’s
not like they enjoy the company...
In Japan in early 2016, an 11-and-a-half foot great white male that was accidentally caught
in a net was placed at an aquarium.
The aquarium proudly announced the world’s first display of an adult great white shark.
However, he died just three days later.
He was put into in a tank with other sharks and initially appeared to be doing well, but
refused to eat and sank to the bottom of the tank shortly thereafter.
The inevitable stress caused by confinement results in great whites becoming injured and
suffering from starvation - symptoms that ultimately lead to death.
5.
They Injure Themselves
A common behavior among great whites in captivity is to ram their heads into the walls of their
tanks.
There are several theories for why this happens.
Some scientists believe that being in a tank disrupts the great white’s keen sense of
electroreception, which allows them to sense the electrical charges in the water around
them, making it difficult for sharks to detect the tank walls.
They are used to an entire open ocean so a small glass enclosure causes stress and makes
it hard for them to use their senses.
As I’m sure you can imagine, forcefully swimming into tank glass causes injuries and
puts the shark’s health at risk.
Most, if not all great white sharks that have died in captivity exhibited this behavior.
For example, the great white that died in Japan had been swimming and bumping into the
walls of its tank.
4.
It’s Expensive
From the very first steps of capturing and transporting a great white shark to keeping
one in captivity, exhaustive resources are required.
When the Monterey Bay Aquarium was tasked with transporting a 4-foot-long great white
from Malibu to northern California in 2004, a custom mobile tank had to be built.
To keep the shark alive for the nine hour drive, it essentially had to be put on life
support and pumped with IV fluids.
That’s a lot of money to spend on obtaining a creature that has historically failed to
thrive in captivity.
Great whites are killers by nature.
Because of their innate desire to hunt, they refuse to be fed by humans.
In fact, great whites in the wild will not eat anything but live prey unless they’re
close to starvation.
While younger sharks target fish, they begin to feed on mammals and larger creatures as
they grow.
Shark tanks would need to be continuously stocked with live prey, which is far costlier
than the dead fish most other aquarium inhabitants are willing to eat.
Also not sure if it would be good PR for the aquarium to be feeding a shark a cute little
live seal or something.
People say they want that...but the reality is probably a different case.
The massive tank that would be required for an aquarium to safely house a great white
shark would have to be astronomically huge.
And expensive.
In fact, based on all of the failed attempts by aquariums to exhibit great whites, one
can infer that a “large enough” tank has never been built.
3.
Not Good For Viewing
The introduction of a great white shark exhibit would most likely result in many disappointed
customers.
A tank large enough to accommodate a great white shark would be impractical in size,
making it difficult for hopeful spectators to catch a consistent, close view of the predator.
It would probably be far off in the distance somewhere.
Moreover, because great whites feast on live prey, aquarium visitors would inevitably be
subjected to the unpleasant sight of one killing and consuming its meals - if the staff were
able to convince the shark to eat in the first place.
Speaking of unpleasant sights, the tendency for great whites to swim into their tank walls
causes visible injuries.
When people visit aquariums and zoos, they expect to see happy, healthy animals, but
would most likely witness a great white shark in an obvious state of discomfort.
Knowing all of this, you might want to go cage diving instead!!
2.
They Do Not Survive in Captivity
Generally, there are two possible outcomes when a great white is placed in confinement:
death or release back into the wild after a short stint at an aquarium, usually refusing
to eat and injuring itself.
Let’s recap the unsuccessful attempts: The first attempt at housing a great white was
made by Marineland of the Pacific in 1955.
Less than a day later, the shark was released back into the ocean.
Until 2004, the longest a great white was able to survive in captivity was a mere 16
days, achieved by SeaWorld in 1981.
The previous record was set in 1976, when a shark survived at SeaWorld for 96 hours.
The Monterey Bay Aquarium has made five total attempts at exhibiting a great white - all
of which have failed.
In 1984, a shark died after 11 days there.
In 2004, they released a shark after 6 months because it killed 2 other sharks.
The aquarium tried again in 2011 - the shark was released after two months in captivity
and died just minutes later.
Then we have the case of the shark in Japan in 2016 which died after 3 days.
One of the reasons aquariums have tried repeatedly to house great white sharks is the public
demand for this kind of exhibit.
It seems like even though everyone is so worried about shark attacks, we still love seeing
them up close and people want to learn more about them.
To cater to this demand, some scientists have even attempted to breed a “version” of
great white shark that is more adaptable to tank life.
However, those attempts have consistently failed, signaling that great whites are simply
not biologically programmed to survive in captivity and that it’s not possible to
condition them into coping better with the constraints of an aquarium tank.
1.
PUBLIC PERCEPTION IS CHANGING
Information about the effects of confinement on certain species has become more transparent
and accessible than ever in recent years.
Documentaries such as Blackfish and The Cove have brought widespread attention to the inhumane
nature of keeping marine life in captivity.
Additionally, animal rights organizations such as PETA and The Humane Society of the
United States have increasingly spoken out about the unnatural captivity of marine animals
in recent years.
Although public demand has influenced aquariums to try to exhibit great white sharks, people
are becoming less supportive as they learn more about the harmful effects of captivity
and the fact that they end up dying!!
While some species handle confinement better than others, the bottom line is that captivity
raises valid ethical concerns about the well-being of creatures that are meant to be in the wild.
Great white sharks rank high among the variety of animals that perpetually fail to thrive
in captivity.
They aren’t just uncomfortable, but otherwise ok.
They show clear displays of distress and people really don’t want to see that.
Even though we want to learn more and see these amazing animals up close, we just can’t
take them out of their environment because they will not survive.
As we as the public get more educated we want to see happy and healthy animals and if they
cannot be kept in an aquarium then so be it.