Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Amazing Video


Kuroshio Sea - 2nd largest aquarium tank in the world

Let this video load. Give it time. Worth it. This is the Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium in Japan.
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4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Lovely exhibit, but I'm worried about keeping whale sharks in captivity.

They are considered vulnerable by the IUCN. No one has bred them in captivity. I'm not opposed to keeping animals in captivity or zoos, but I think we have to have very good reasons to do so.

I think they are beautiful and amazing creatures, but I'm not so sure they are a good captive species. The two males that were kept by the Georgia Aquarium failed to thrive in captivity. Both died.

BTW, the offspring of this species are tiny compared to the adults.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/03/090309-smallest-whale-shark-baby.html

It's one of those sharks that has the young hatch out of eggs inside the mother's body and the young are born live.

I think that's a beautiful exhibit, but I'm just a little concerned about whale sharks. More has to be done to preserve their ecosystem and prevent them from being over fished. Taking them for aquarium exhibits might not be so good for them.

Éadaoin said...

Hey! It's Japan! What do they care about marine conservation? *sigh*

PBurns said...

I hear you Retrieverman. Whale sharks (a krill and minnow-eating giant shark) can live up to 100 years. The upside to having a few on display around the world is the same upside as there is to captive Pandas -- the more people that see them, the more conservation efforts are boosted. This video clip is going to be seen by a lot of people, which may speed up laws to ban the harpooning of this fish, which is still done in various parts of the world.

As for Japan and aquariums, it's true story time!

A couple of miles from here there used to a very dark, ugly, basement-like aquarium store. You would go in, and there was this enormously fat man sitting in an overstuffed chair, the only light on was from the tanks, which were green from algae, and there was a stench to the place. There was this enormous archer fish in a tank that was way too small for it, and the whole place was depressing, and creepy. The only reason I went there was to get "feeder" goldfish to stock my backyard pond with after the occassional heron invasion. One day I go by to pick up 50 more goldfish, and the aquarium store is gone! And what has replaced it? A sushi restaurant! True story. Sushi place is now a Mexican Restaurant, I think.

P.

Isaac said...

I've actually been to that aquarium and have many pictures similar to what the video shows. On the left of the screen you can see a curved area of glass where you can sit and watch the whale sharks swim over you. They're huge.

The rest of the amusement park where the aquarium is is pretty unspectacular though. Downright sad in some places. Moldy tanks, sea turtles in tubs where they literally can't turn around (I may have seen some kind of science experiment in progress??).

But yeah, the big attraction is that aquarium and its pretty spectacular.