The Georgia Aquarium got top billing as the only aquarium in the U.S. to display a whale shark. Not just one, but four. This month the attention got hotter when Ralph, a whale shark, and Gasper, a Beluga whale, died in captivity.Organizations like the Captive Animals' Protection Society and the Georgia Animal Rights and Protection have cited this as reasons why aquariums should be shut down. Individuals have written letters, sent e-mail, even held a candle-light vigil to protest animal captivity.
Aquarium supporters have fired back, insisting their purpose is to research marine life and educate the public about them. They feel raising awareness of certain animals, like the beluga and whale shark, will help their long-term survival.
With concerns about global warming, pollution, extinction, and overfishing, the only place we may see animals like the whale shark are at the aquarium. Most of the public never gets underwater to realize how much sea life needs protection, and if it weren't for aquariums would they ever know? More marine life is killed as by-catch than will die in captivity.
Aquariums should be held to strict standards and be wholly accountable for their actions, but shutting them down would be the greatest disservice to the very creatures they serve to protect.
1. Marc, I tend to agree with you regarding the whale sharks. An earlier draft of my post included a comment that some animals may not be the most appropriate for captivity but I removed it.
If you have the chance to save an animal from extinction (an extinction accelerated by man's actions) would you put it on display or let it die off?
The animal in question doesn't want either option but we've become the stewards of our planet so the responsibility falls on us. Perhaps it's the natural progression of evolution and we should let everything runs its course: pollution, climate change, extinction...even human cloning.
But that's not an acceptable solution either.
Posted at 5:38PM on Jan 31st 2007 by Eric Brodeur