Whale Sharks n such...

So ive been looking around the web on info on whale sharks in captivity. well is it true they only lasted so far on average 500 days? why do we keep them if they always die? It says that the georgia aquariums largest tank 6 million gallons, does anyone know how much it cost to build and maintain? could a great white survive in a 6 million gallon tank?

 

"T-rex doesn't want to be fed, T-rex wants to hunt" - Dr. Grant, Jurassic Park

 

White sharks are migratory and don't fair well in captivity. I did hear something recently about someone trying to raise one in captivity though.

 

I Georgia Aquarium has 3 now I believe, and they have been there for 3 or 4 years now. Last time I was there (Dec. 2009), they said they had mated 2 of them. Crazy exhibit though....brought in from China area via UPS. What can brown do for you?!

 

My best friend and his wife went to the atlanta aquarium a few weeks ago, pics can be found here.

 

the monterey aqur. has had a couple white sharks. However they have all been juveniles. And have not been keep for a long period of time. They always end up eating the tuna, so they release them. beautiful shark!!!

 

MBA has had a bunch now and they have all been released for different reasons, one eating the tuna was one event, another was killing other sharks, another two (IIRC) weren't doing hot at all.

 

I only got to see two of them.... do you if its true that they are redoing the outer bay? I noticed the tuna looking a little sparss

 

I went to the GA aquarium last month, they have four and its pretty amazing to see them up close. We also just got back from Mexico and had planned on swimming with the Whale sharks, but while getting open water certified diving me and the fiance had problems with our ears and scratched the whale sharks. The GA aquarium was funded mainly by private donations if I recall correctly it was like close to 300 million. Its very nice and pretty cool that they have kept them alive for so long, but when there are a team of micro biologists on the pay roll, you would hope they could.

 

GA was funded mainly by the founder of Home Depot. He put up the most money.

What they don;t tell you at GA is how many they have all ready killed. They should have to put whale icons on the tank for every one killed under their control.