Whale Shark @ Georgia Aquarium

[palvyre]

 

[Steviereefs]

Thats one big shark!!!!! Nice photo, can you go diving in thats tank ?

 

[Luckfish]

Yes, when we were there I believe they said for one price you can swim in the tank and for a larger fee you can scuba dive with the proper license.

 

[Tabasco1]

Great for awareness but not sure how I feel about keeping them in captivity. Don't think they have best life expectancy in captivity.

 

[k2parkstar]

It's $325 scuba dive, $225 to swim.

 

[fiberglassmonkey]

 

[palvyre]

I am not sure about health of the whale sharks, but when I saw their reef exhibit with tons of tangs etc. All of the fish looked to be in awesome shape. Also they had a number of Moorish Idols in there. I thought those were near impossible to keep in captivity, but these all looked fat and happy.

 

[gmoney243]

I am not sure about health of the whale sharks, but when I saw their reef exhibit with tons of tangs etc. All of the fish looked to be in awesome shape. Also they had a number of Moorish Idols in there. I thought those were near impossible to keep in captivity, but these all looked fat and happy.

Not to doubt you but are you sure there moorish idols and not the bannerfish. They often get mistaken. But I wouldn't doubt it if they are able to keep moorish idols public aquariums can do a lot with fish we can't. A lot of first time successfull breeding and rearing of fish is done by big public aquariums.

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[palvyre]

The Moorish Idol has a very distinctive mouth.

 

[palvyre]

And a quick google search would verify

 

[gmoney243]

Yea id love to go down there and check all that out I'm sure u was in heaven wishing to take some fish/corals home lol

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[revsgirl]

Amazing creatures!

 

[schooleyosis]

My fiance' and I spent 8 hours in that place. LOL Gotta go on the back scene tour and see their lagoon setup. It's really neat! Plus watching those Whale Sharks eat is crazy. The workers ride around in little inflatable boats and feed those bad boys!

 

[z1107]

Great for awareness but not sure how I feel about keeping them in captivity. Don't think they have best life expectancy in captivity.

The whale sharks were purchased from the Taiwanese government to save them from being eaten. I'm a former employee of the aquarium and all the original animals were rescues from other aquariums and parks. Taiwan allows a certain number to be captured for food every year and the aquarium purchased a total of six to date that would have otherwise been eaten.