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New Whale Sharks at Georgia Aquarium !!!! and other Stuff

D

debfife

I saw one while in honduras. It was the size of a school bus! I can't imagine how or why they'd keep on in captivity. Although, it will be amazing for you to see.
 
Hawkeye

Hawkeye

I feel mixed about this. I mean this aquarium opened shop in 11/2005 thanks to Home Depot ($250 Million) and others and immediately acquire 3 male whale sharks...One of which dies in 1/2007. Considering they live a very long time in the wild (supposedly 50 plus years)...that's not a good track record.

The message to me is this - even though we don't quite know how to keep them, let's get another one anyway since it brings in the $$$ (visitors).

On the other hand - I can understand the argument that casualties are sure to happen when trying to save a species (See giant panda in china).

Like I said - mixed feelings.
 
K

kathainbowen

phil519 said:
I feel mixed about this. I mean this aquarium opened shop in 11/2005 thanks to Home Depot ($250 Million) and others and immediately acquire 3 male whale sharks...One of which dies in 1/2007. Considering they live a very long time in the wild (supposedly 50 plus years)...that's not a good track record.
Click to expand...

To clear the air on something slightly off in that statement:

The Georgia Aquarium had but 2 male whale sharks initially for the opening of the aquarium, Ralph and Norton. The whale sharks were initially kept offshore and using techniques from other aquariums keeping them. Ralph was a unique situation in which he stopped eating a few days before he died (c'mon fish keepers, we all know this is a troubling sign) and necropsy revealed an inflammation in an abdominal membrane along with other problems. The controversy surrounding his death relates heavily to an anti-parasitic that could have potentially been used in the tank, leaving many animal rights activists pointing to both the anti-parasitic and captivity as caused to the death.

However, while other whale sharks in captivity have not reached the reported average lifespan of 50 years, one of the longest living whale sharks reached over 9 years (I'm not certain if it's still alive at the moment *knock on wood*) at Osaka. In the Osaka Aquarium, the Okinawa Aquarium, and the Georgia Aquarium, great strides are being made in attempts to not only study whale sharks but to potentially foster a captive breeding program (specifically, this is the hope of the Georgia Aquarium, especially when introducing "Alice" and "Trixie," their two females, to "Ralph" and "Norton").

But, what does this all mean to me ethically?

On the one hand, I must constantly applaud aquariums and marine biologists for making great advances in not only the maintaining of rare and exotic species, but also the strides they make for captive care. However, on the other hand, the logical reefer in me wants to slap them on the wrist for potentially rushing things with species that might be too difficult to care for in a captive setting with out current knowledge and available technology (Moorish Idol anyone?). Bernie Marcus's own favorite specimen (a rather large common octopus) perished within a year of the aquarium's opening, and no one seems concerned about that rather foolish endeavor compared to keeping whale sharks. Other specimens within a half a year of opening were still showing signs of ich and HLLE, and only really sharp eyed keepers saw issue to it. It all bouls down to the question of whether you think the impact of their work is worth the effort and cost.

Still, I'm not going to lie and say I didn't get a giddy thrill standing on the gantry and watching Ralph and Norton swim under me, running up down the length so I could be right over them as they passed. And I'm not going to lie and say I'm not going to call my insider friend next month when I head down to visit so I can get the same giddy thrill again- this time with a camera in hand!
 
Hawkeye

Hawkeye

Update....sadly another shark has died. History will determine whether they should stop attempting to breed or the death of the two was a fluke.


2 hours, 47 minutes ago

Another whale shark died early Wednesday at the Georgia Aquarium, the second this year at the only facility outside Asia to display the huge, rare fish.

Norton's death came just a few weeks after two new whale sharks arrived at the aquarium from Taiwan. At that time, Taiwan fishery officials had said they were satisfied the aquarium provided the quality care the young whale sharks would need.

Aquarium officials said in a written statement Wednesday that Norton had stopped eating in recent months and showed erratic swimming behavior.

They said the staff had noticed a decline in Norton's swimming behavior on Tuesday and blood work confirmed a decline in his health. Early Wednesday, the whale shark stopped swimming and settled to the bottom of his tank, aquarium officials said.

Divers brought him to a stretcher, and "after every option had been exhausted to improve Norton's health, the team made the decision to humanely euthanize him," the aquarium said.

In January, Ralph, another whale shark that was among the aquarium's first stars after it opened in 2005, also died there.

Ralph had stomach problems that led to an inflammation of a membrane in his abdomen, according to aquarium officials. The aquarium has theorized that a chemical it no longer uses in the tank to treat parasites might have contributed to his loss of appetite and health problems.

The two new whale sharks, Yushan and Taroko, join Alice and Trixie in the aquarium's 6-million-gallon tank. The sharks can grow up to 40 feet long.

___

On the Net:

Georgia Aquarium: http://www.georgiaaquarium.org
 
K

kathainbowen

phil519 said:
Update....sadly another shark has died. History will determine whether they should stop attempting to breed or the death of the two was a fluke.
Click to expand...

Sadly, it's not a fluke. In fact, the longest recorded whale shark living captivity lived over 9 years old (still far shy of the estimated maximum lifespan). I believe it was in the Osaka Aquarium. And, rightly, it doesn't surprise me that the whale sharks in the Georgia Aquarium are experiencing shorter captive lifespans than specimens at other facilities. Georgia Aquarium is the first western facility to keep whale sharks, and it's a long, hard journey from Taiwan to Atlanta, despite all the measures taken to ensure as speedy and safe a trip.

It's like I said, it all comes down to whether you feel that the scientific benefit and potential strides towards captive breeding outweight the cost of severely shortening the lifespans of the animals in study.
 
J

jazzsam

I can't imagine to be the person that finds that in the morning. I come down stairs in the morning to find a dead fish and I am bummed. I can't imagine coming in the morning and finding something like that lying at the bottom!
 
E

Erich

Yeah I hear everyone. I was at the Georgia Aquarium on Sunday.
What a wonderful place to spend the day.

We were told that they had recieved the week before three more whale sharks and now one has died again this week.

They were saying the first one died due to some sort of bacteria or infection. Go figure. Now they have four again.

But the place well worth the trip.
 
D

debfife

Is the aquarium the size of the state of NJ? I don't understand how they can fit 4 of them! I've seen one live in person, in the wild, it was bigger than a school bus.
 
C

Carlo

I believe they are in a 6.3 million gallon tank. It's the same tank that houses:
giant groupers
Golden Trevally
Great Hammerhead Sharks
small and large stingrays
Largetooth Sawfish

The tank itself is 263' x 162' and 33' deep

While that might sound large it's nothing compared to real life for these whales. Think about how deep they normally swim and it becomes all to apparent how small an environment they are in.

If you take into consideration the adult fish could measure 40' then the depth isn't even 1 multiple of the fish. The width is 4 fish and the length is 6.5 fish assuming adult size.

To give you an idea, how about filling a 10 gallon tank 1/3 to 1/2 way up and then putting 4 tangs in it. Sounds pretty close. Oh might as well throw a dozen damsels in there too since the 6 million gallon tank has about 75-80K fish in it.

BTW, during the hours of 10am to 7:30pm you can view the webcam here: http://www.georgiaaquarium.org/exploreTheAquarium/ov-webcam.aspx

For those not familiar with the Georgia Aquarium:
The Georgia Aquarium is the largest aquarium in the world, whether you're measuring by the number of fish (more than 100,000) or the volume of water (more than a million cubic feet). It houses about 500 species in 60 habitats with 12,000 square feet of viewing windows, and it cost $290 million to build.

328 tons of acrylic windows
290 plumbing fixtures, 200 floor drains and 53 roof drains connected with 1.5 miles of underground pipe and 5.5 miles of aboveground pipe
100,000 yards of concrete and 2,500 auger-cast piles

The Ocean Voyager tank, the largest habitat, holds three-fourths of the aquarium's water. It is 263 feet long by 126 feet wide by 33 feet deep.

Other aquarium exhibits include the 800,000 gallon beluga whale enclosure, smaller tanks and multiple touch tanks where visitors can get hands-on experience with aquatic animals. Many of the tanks use artificial light, but the Ocean Voyager tank, the beluga whale habitat and the large coral reef all receive natural light.

To fill the tanks, the aquarium piped in 8 million gallons of ordinary tap water. After treating it to remove chemicals and impurities, the staff added 1.5 million pounds of Instant Ocean sea salt. (I bet Instant Ocean had a good quarter that year!)

Behind the scenes, the aquarium uses three types of filtration:
*Mechanical filtration, which removes fine particulates
*Fractionation, which removes dissolved organic materials
*Ozone, which plays the same role as chlorine in a swimming pool but is safer for fish

It takes 218 pumps, 141 sand filters and 70 protein skimmers to do this for the whole aquarium. These pumps move 261,000 gallons of water per minute. Ocean Voyager (main tank) alone requires 28 pumps and 56 sand filters, which clean about 1,800 gallons of water per minute. (doesn't make sense that the main tank would only be 1.8K gpm while the whole facility is 261K gpm).

I swiped some of the the above info from http://www.howstuffworks.com/georgia-aquarium.htm. If you have a few minutes it's worth a good read. There are videos of the protein skimmers in use. They are HUGE!

In the article above it mentions the staff's goal is to keep the turnover time under two hours.

Just thought this might be interesting reading for some.

Carlo

BTW, for anyone who's been to Adventure Aqaurium in NJ the facility is 760,000 gallons with the main shark tank being 550,000 gallons.
 
M

mladencovic

While whale sharks are not so good swimmers (slow and not so efficient) due to their feeding mechanism and even though they are feeding primarily from plankton at the top of water column, I agree it is a shame to keep them there because it does not match their natural habitat at all. Not to mention that they do occasionally dive really deep (more then 2000'). But then they used (I don't know if they still do) to keep those poor beluga whales in that tub of a tank in NY Aquarium. Unfortunately the list does not end there. Just think of all those poor elephants in zoos all across the world.
 
K

kathainbowen

mladencovic said:
While whale sharks are not so good swimmers (slow and not so efficient) due to their feeding mechanism and even though they are feeding primarily from plankton at the top of water column, I agree it is a shame to keep them there because it does not match their natural habitat at all. Not to mention that they do occasionally dive really deep (more then 2000'). But then they used (I don't know if they still do) to keep those poor beluga whales in that tub of a tank in NY Aquarium. Unfortunately the list does not end there. Just think of all those poor elephants in zoos all across the world.
Click to expand...

Pft. Who needs to do the work coming up with a list of animals that don't belong in as small of an enclosure as they're often kept in? Just listen to how many people out there still insist that fish "grow to the size of their environment."

*sigh*
 
J

julioportalatin

While an argument can be made that no saltwater fish s/b kept in captivity unless they can be bred in captivity, surely there is a big difference when it comes to these gigantic, majestic animals. More study in the wild is necessary before they continue to collect and try to keep whale sharks in captivity.

I saw the whale shark in Osaka Japan years ago, it was quite breath taken. I was very saddened when I heard that it had died. Seem to experience the same thing.....gets lathargic, stops eating and swimming and dies. Seems like there is difficulty in replicating the eating environment of plankton in captivity.
 
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