No matter how many aquariums you visit in different parts of the world and how many marine creatures you see, there is still one species that you will never see there: the Great White Shark. Why is that?
The reason is because great white sharks in captivity often have a very short life span tend to commit suicide. There have been many unfortunate incidents that have occurred at famous aquariums in the US. White sharks, when in an aquarium, sometimes only live for one day, sometimes a few days.
The aquarium cannot become a home for white sharks because it cannot meet their natural needs.
Great white sharks have a hard time adapting to life in an aquarium for many reasons such as dietlimited space and impact from the external environment, according to IFL Science.
One big problem is diet. White shark is a carnivore at the top of the food chain, often referred to as “ocean killer”. In the wild, they are willing to starve until they find live prey. But in aquarium environments, many captive white sharks often refuse to eat prepared meat.
Great white sharks are not a suitable species to keep in an aquarium. (Photo: Comicvine).
White sharks are also one of the aquatic animals that must constantly swim forward to let water flow through their gills to get oxygen. This animal is often up to 6 meters long, so the width of aquarium tanks is often not enough to meet its movement needs.
Great white sharks are accustomed to swimming long journeys. Researchers once recorded a female shark named Nicole completing a distance of more than 20,000km from Africa to Australia and vice versa in just 9 months.
Job Simulating the vast space in the sea, where great white sharks can swim freely, is an impossible goal. Visitors will lose interest when they have to observe the animal from too far away.
Another theory says that Artificial environment in the aquarium can overwhelm or disrupt the white shark’s sensitive electroreceptors. This sense allows them to detect small movements and changes in the aquatic environment. However, in the aquarium, the shark is easily confused by the large amount of stimulation from the glass walls to the surrounding electrical equipment.
Once we know all of this, even if a great white shark is kept in an aquarium, we probably won’t be excited to see them anymore.
The Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium in Japan was one of the last unsuccessful attempts to keep white sharks in captivity last year. The shark died just three days after being placed in the tank.
Before that, dozens of other places tried displaying white sharks in aquariums. Marineland of the Pacific, a famous aquarium in California, USA, was the first place to keep white sharks in captivity in the mid-1950s. The shark lived less than a day. SeaWorld also tried to breed great white sharks several times in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, but all efforts failed. The sharks died or were forced to be released back into the wild after only two weeks of arriving at the park.
In 2004, the Monterey Bay Aquarium became the only place in the world that can keep white sharks for longer than 16 days.
Source: MXH