Some aquariums dare to raise anything... The Aquarium of Georgia, USA, introduced four whale sharks in 2006, which immediately shocked the world. You know, whale sharks are the largest guys in the shark family, usually adult individuals grow at 10 to 12 meters, how big a tank to get, in order to raise four whale sharks!
The Georgia Aquarium takes great care of these whale sharks, and they have prepared an oversized vertical water tank with a volume of 6.3 million gallons (about 23 million liters), which lives in addition to whale sharks, corals, stingrays and other animals. According to the aquarium, they are modeled after a shallow sea in Indonesia where corals and whale sharks are found.
In order to maximize the simulation, they even set up an oversized water exchange device next to the water tank, which can discharge 6,000 gallons (about 22,712 liters) of filtered water into the water tank every 2 minutes, and help the whale sharks create a simulated wave effect while circulating the water tank environment.
Unfortunately, three of the four whale sharks died of illness, and not long after, only one female whale shark named Trixie continued to live in the aquarium for 14 years, setting a record for the survival of captive whale sharks.
As one of the biggest highlights of the aquarium, the veterinarian will check trixie's physical condition every day, and according to the veterinarian, just this year, the always healthy trixie fell ill without warning, then quickly weakened and quickly left. The aquarium did not disclose the specific cause of its death, nor did it disclose its specific age, and it is quite detrimental to them to think of these details.
In its natural state, whale sharks can live to be about 100 years old, and it is clear that Trixie's age is far less than half that of whale sharks in its natural state, and may not even be 1/4.
The aquarium's concealment of Trixie's death has made many people who like animals feel angry, they think that at this stage the aquarium does not have the conditions to keep animals that large in captivity, but they forcibly imprison them, just to attract attention and make money, which is too cruel for whale sharks.
Usually, land animals in captivity live longer than their natural state, but marine animals are difficult to talk about, especially those that are very large, such as cetaceans and sharks.
In fact, many aquariums have been trying to push the limits, trying to simulate various environments to raise some uncommon marine animals, which Japan and the United States are very active. There are not many aquariums in the world that can raise whale sharks, in addition to the Georgia Aquarium, the Osaka Maritime Tourism Museum in Japan also has whale sharks, and the Osaka Sea Tour Museum has prepared a large water tank with a depth of 9 meters, a length of 34 meters and a volume of 5400 tons for whale sharks.
We also have aquariums in China to raise whale sharks, I heard that Yantai, Zhuhai, Chengdu have, but do not know how to take care of the current situation, interested partners can pay attention to the relevant information.
Japan's Izu Mitsu Marine Park and The United States' San Diego Sea World also tried to raise minke whales, and California's aquarium also tried to raise gray whales, but later because it was too large and difficult to raise, people released it back into the sea.
Since whale sharks can be raised, is it better to keep sharks that are smaller than whale sharks? Some aquariums house double-snouted manta rays with an average wingspan of 5 to 6 meters, especially in the tanks of large aquariums.
Manta rays have a more docile personality, although they are a little larger, they are still quite good to serve, and some aquariums challenge the more ferocious sharks, such as tiger sharks, bull sharks and ocean-going whitetip sharks, and the aquariums that can feed them are quite fierce.
Japanese aquariums have also tried to challenge deep-sea sharks, and 8 Japanese aquariums have raised frilled sharks (also known as pseudoemoid sharks) living in the 1,000-meter deep sea, but they have not been kept for a long time, after all, they are deep-sea animals, and current technology is difficult to simulate their living environment.
The world's most famous and only deep-sea aquarium is also in Japan, called the Numazu Port Deep-Sea Aquarium, which houses some deep-sea marine animals that are difficult to see in other aquariums.
For most people, there won't be many chances in a lifetime to dive into the sea and get up close and personal with the amazing marine life, but it's easier to buy a ticket to the aquarium. Aquariums satisfy the curiosity of many people, but also for people to open up a new world that is difficult to depict by imagination alone, Claw feels that with the development of science and technology, human beings will one day be able to find a better way to observe the daily life of these wonderful animals, but also to disturb their survival as little as possible, and find a balance between man and nature.