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Why No Aquarium In The World Has A Great White Shark
Aquariums are amazing places but if you've ever been to one you'll notice
that they don't have nature's most alpha predator that is the
great white shark the great white shark is the most
googled underwater animals and many action-packed movies have been
made about this creature so why would people not want to see them
in aquariums do they not put them in simply because they're too boring and
people don't care or are they worried that they'll break
out and eat everyone in the aquarium well there are actually various
surprising and unusual reasons why no aquarium in the
world has a great white shark there are various good reasons why this
animal is never found behind glass and after hearing why you'll see
this animal in a totally different light depression this may sound kind of funny
because we see depression as a human trait
but did he know that animals can also have mental health issues
and this affects great white sharks more than almost any other animal whenever
they're put into captivity they develop depression
marine biologists believe that's because we're unable to create a suitable
artificial environment we basically can't mimic their natural
habitat enough so they realize great white sharks are pretty smart
animals after all when great white sharks are taken from the wild and put
into captivity they are not happy at all but how can they tell they're in
captivity well great white sharks are saltwater creatures
this means they need a specific amount of saline in their water that's
something which is very difficult for aquariums to maintain
accurately that's because saline levels depend on many things
this includes where the water is where it's flowing and the time of year
this causes depression in the great white sharks and this makes them become
very lethargic too at first they won't be able to move very well
and then they'll stop being able to breathe properly a depressed great white
shark will get very aggressive very easily and they'll also stop eating
in 1981 a fisherman caught a great white shark
he then sold it to sea world in san diego the shark was massive at five
feet and weighing a hundred pounds so that's why seaworld spared no expense
and bought a four hundred thousand gallon shark tank
but the shark simply would not eat what they gave it eventually the shark
experienced convulsions and could not swim
employees then tried to save the shark's life by force feeding it mackerel fish
they also injected the shark with nutrients they also tried to help the
shark with its swimming using humans and also pumped more oxygen
into the tank but none of this worked and the shark
was too depressed and passed on 16 days later
the experience taught them a lot about shark medicine and behavior
and it also beat the record for how long sharks normally survive in captivity the
previous sea world record was a mere 96 hours
and the previous world record was held by the monterey bay aquarium
this was a great white shark they acquired in 1984.
after 11 days the shark would not eat and it passed on
at the same aquarium it took them until 2004 to get a great white shark to eat
in captivity but eventually that shark became way too
aggressive to starve it kept hitting the glass trying to
break out and it even took out two of its own tank mates so eventually
this shark had to be released back into the wild
probably where the shark belongs in 2016 japan tried to house a great white shark
in an aquarium the shark was gigantic at 11.5 feet
but the exhibit did not go as planned as the shark passed on
three days later this is simply because the shark was depressed and would not
eat space great white sharks are incredibly
large and that's why they need a lot of space
after all some great white sharks can be 13 to 19 feet in length
but you may be thinking they're not the biggest animal kept in aquariums
for example orca whales are often larger and they're in aquariums
so why can't we keep a great white shark which is smaller than an orca
well the reason why is simply because of how much great white sharks have to swim
you've likely heard the saying sharks have to keep moving to stay alive
this isn't true for all species but it is true for the great white shark
in the wild great white sharks swim 100 kilometers every day
they swim so much that sharks tagged on one side of the world are sometimes
found on the other side of the world that's because they've swam the length
of many oceans and seas a few years ago a shark from africa swam
all the way to australia and back again in less than one year
also to obtain oxygen great white sharks always need to swim forward
that's so that water can pass through their gills so that they can breathe
this is unlike most fish who get their oxygen from opening and closing their
mouth they also need to move constantly to
maintain their body temperature great white sharks also only change
direction when they want to this makes keeping them in a glass tank
even more complex so even a whale tank would be way too
small for a great white shark injuries when great white sharks are in
captivity they injure themselves they often ram their heads into the
walls of their tanks this is because sharks have great
electro reception this allows them to sense electrical changes in the water
but if they're in captivity they don't have this
when their electro reception is disturbed they don't know what's around
them that's why they can't detect the glass and simply swim into it
some also say that the sharks may be doing this on purpose
as we've already gone over sharks can get depressed when they're in captivity
so maybe the sharks are trying to end their lives every great white shark
which is passed on in captivity has exhibited this behavior
and that includes the japanese shark which was caught in 2016 we covered
earlier expensive if you think that your pet
costs a lot of money try housing a great white shark you'll be broke in a matter
of hours to get a shark from the wild into your
aquarium will set you back a lot of money
the logistics costs are astronomical it also has to be kept alive with iv fluid
pumps but that's only the beginning of your
expenses great white sharks will not eat anything but
live prey this is because they're wired to hunt
this means you need lots of fish and larger mammals to feed your great white
shark and they have to be alive too a tank large enough to house a great
white shark would have to be massive even if it was a million gallons it
likely would not work but a one million gallon shark tank
would set you back millions of dollars a large enough tank has never been built
recently in las vegas a one million dollar fish tank was made
this could maybe house an orca whale but not a great white shark
bad viewing even if an aquarium did successfully get a great white shark you
would never get a good view the shark tank would have to be so big
that the chance of the shark being near the glass would be very slim
this means that the aquarium visitors would be staring at mostly just water
the shark would simply be way too far away to see also because sharks only
feast on live prey you'd have to see mammals and small fish be eaten
this may not be very nice for children visiting the aquarium
and it's also not good pr seeing you taking animals lives before your
visitor's very eyes and that's only if these staff could get
the shark to eat in the first place which is difficult
also the shark that people would see would not be in good condition
because sharks often swim into the aquarium's walls they would likely be
injured very badly most people don't want to see an injured
shark when they go to an aquarium and it also may be scary for kids and adults to
see a shark ramming right into them capturing this should come as no
surprise but great white sharks are very hard to capture
the most recently caught great white shark in 2016 was done by accident in
japan this is because it was caught up in a
fishing net but if you're trying to do this on purpose
it's nearly impossible it's very large and also aggressive too
man could only capture these animals as recently as 1955.
to put that into perspective we've been able to capture lions and tigers for
thousands of years
transportation transporting a great white shark is a logistics nightmare a
few years back the monterey bay aquarium transported a four foot long great white
shark this was in 2004 and it had to go from
florida to california they had to build a custom
mobile shark tank this was a nine-hour drive
and the shark had to be put on life support and pumped with iv fluids
a shark has never been shipped on an airplane but in 2015
ups overnight shipped a beluga whale this is said to have cost around two
million dollars so to do this with a great white shark
it would likely cost even more public perception another reason why no
aquarium has a great white shark is simply because people wouldn't like it
it may sound cool on the surface but in reality it would not be good
more and more there are protests against aquariums for example there are often
protests about sea world and their treatment of animals
also documentaries such as the cove and blackfish have brought attention to this
issue so if another great white shark was
captured and to be housed in an aquarium there would be massive protests
after all everyone now knows that the shark would likely end up
passing away in a matter of days but now it's time to make your voice heard
comment below whether you support aquariums or not
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