Why No Aquarium In the World Has a Great White Shark?

[Music] here's a story for you that really bites why no aquarium in the world has a great white shark even if you absolutely love aquariums and have been to dozens of them there's one sea creature you'll never ever come across there not a single aquarium in the world has a great white shark at this point you might be wondering why that is is the great white not cool enough to be put on display are people afraid of being attacked even when these animals are confined within thick walls made of special glass not exactly go ahead and hit that subscribe button to stay with us on the bright side of life where you'll see this and tons of other mysteries revealed first of all let's see if you can remember what a great white shark looks like so that you can distinguish it from any other shark species you know in case you happen to encounter one hopefully not face-to-face of course because then you'll need a bigger boat these massive fish can be spotted in cool coastal waters all over the world great white sharks can be gray brownish or almost black but their underbelly is always white hence the name they usually grow about 15 feet in length although the largest members of this species can get as big as 20 feet long as for their weight it can reach a whopping 7,000 pounds they use their extremely strong tails to propel their bodies through the water at a top speed of 35 miles an hour the mouth of a great white shark is amazingly well equipped and decorated decorated with 300 razor-sharp teeth these triangular choppers are arranged in six and sometimes even seven rows imagine having two flaws between all those teeth a lot of people think that these gigantic predators love dining on human flesh and are just lurking out there in the depths waiting for a chance to attack some unfortunate individual surprisingly enough human isn't on a great whites menu in general there no more than ten attacks a year and even so scientists are sure that the Sharks don't hunt people down to eat them they're just too darn curious to pass up a little sample bite is all after that they often swim away I'm sure you feel much better about shark attacks now don't you anyway if great white sharks aren't kept in aquariums because of the danger they present to visitors then what is the reason well it's actually quite tragic great whites can't stand captivity and simply die when contained there have been plenty of attempts to hold these creatures captive in 1955 the first great white was captured and sent to marine land of the Pacific in Los Angeles unfortunately the animal didn't even make it through one day at the ocean area yet people still kept trying to tame the king of the sea up until 2003 there had been 25 attempts to keep the animal in captivity but all of them ended very quickly in tragedy for example in 1992 a young shark no more than a year old was brought to the Steinhart aquarium in San Francisco and transferred to a 100,000 gallon tank it died of shock within a day the SeaWorld in San Diego managed to keep a great white for 16 days back in 2003 but they ended up deciding to release the animal back into the ocean the long as a shark has ever stayed in an aquarium was 2004 the Monterey Bay Aquarium managed to keep a female great white for over six months she lived in a 1.2 million gallon open sea exhibit and even grew 14 inches over the duration of her stay the shark eventually had to be released though because she'd attacked and killed all the other sharks in the exhibit well it's what they do the same aquarium had several more great whites over the years some of them stayed for 11 days some managed to hold on for five months but all of them had to be released due to different reasons a couple of sharks became too big for their britches I mean their tanks well several others started displaying unhealthy behavior the refused to eat or would swim into the sides of their tanks one had to be released because it had become too lively and playful for its own good as for one shark that was released in 2011 it seemed fine in the aquarium but died just a week after being set free the most recent case of a great white being held in captivity was in Japan's Okinawa dorami aquarium in 2016 the animal stopped eating and just swam into the sides of the tank just three days after its arrival the shark simply sank to the bottom all attempts to revive it were unsuccessful there could be only one cause of death captivity so what is it that makes this species unlike its relatives suffer so much from being locked up scientists still don't know much about the great white shark but they have come up with several theories one depression great whites live as long as humans do there are no obvious reasons why healthy shark should pass away after just a couple of days in captivity therefore the reasons seem to be entirely psychological believe it or not depression and shock can bring these powerful creatures down to lack of space big fish need a lot of space and sharks are no different a shark's body is shaped like a torpedo for a reason it can move faster over long distances without too much effort in fact great whites can make the six thousand nine hundred mile journey from Australia to Africa in just 99 days and since they're moving at an average speed of 25 miles per hour that means they leap an astounding 25 feet out of the water obviously no aquarium in the world can provide the animal with these sorts of conditions so captive sharks often swim into the sides of their tank in failed attempts to behave as usual three respiratory problems have you ever heard that sharks need to keep moving in order to stay alive well this isn't true about just any shark species it definitely is when it comes to the great white this species is an obligate Ram breather which means that it can breathe best only when there's a constant flow of water through its gills in a tank great whites can't move freely so they develop problems with the respiratory system what's more a shark can suffer from hypoxia or a deficiency of oxygen the thing is that these sharks increase their energy by swimming faster and opening their mouth wider and while this may seem counterproductive that's how it works with obligate Ram breathers that's why sharks that don't have enough space to maneuver can choke to death from a lack of oxygen for hunger believe it or not great white sharks are picky eaters since they need to hunt down their prey and eat it alive they often refuse to eat in captivity they basically don't want to be spoon-fed by humans well if they're starving they might agree to eat whatever they're human capture is offering but it makes them depressed because of this they eventually lose their appetite as well as their entire will to live perhaps it's the thrill of the hunt they miss most number five the wrong water salinity you can't even imagine how hard it is to mimic the oceans unique water composition that may be the reason why according to some experts sharks feel so bad when held in aquariums as you can see it's a really bad idea to keep these amazing and powerful creatures literally locked up like a caged animal not only does it kill the poor thanks it's super expensive for aquariums and it has a highly negative impact on the oceans themselves great white sharks are extremely important for keeping the ecological balance in the oceans losing just one shark and dangers the entire ecosystem unfortunately this is becoming an ever-increasing problem as the great white shark is a species at threat of extinction there are just about 3,500 of them left in the world the reason for such a dramatic state of events all comes down to poaching some parts of a great whites body are in high demand on the black market and go for a crazy high price the shark's fins for instance can cost huge amounts of money because there used to make some sort of fancy soup at overpriced banquets in Asia this demand has led to shark finning which is when poachers catch a shark cut off its fins and throw the animal back into the open ocean as a result each year millions of injured sharks die from either blood loss or being attacked by other predators just so rich people can have a bowl of soup their skin is used to make clothing and accessories and an oil called squalene is extracted from their liver to make cosmetic and pharmaceutical products they have to kill 3,000 sharks to produce a ton of this substance we can't forget about their teeth of course tourists love buying pendants made from shark teeth this practice is so widespread that the price of a particularly big tooth can reach $1,000 and a jaw can be sold for $35,000 it's totally illegal to kill these creatures and all kinds of laws and punishments have been put in place but as long as it's a lucrative business poachers won't stop hunting these magnificent but sadly not so numerous ocean dwellers to save the last representatives of the great white species it comes down to us people must change their attitude and their desire for products made from murdered sharks otherwise the day will come when people will say remember when there used to be great white sharks if you think that people shouldn't try to capture great whites even for educational purposes hit that like button and if you know any other endangered species on the brink of extinction write about them in the comments below what in your opinion can be done to save them see you next time [Music]

Channel: BRIGHT SIDE

Views: 5,567,938

Rating: 4.8817739 out of 5

Keywords: shark, great white shark, the largest shark, the largest fish, endangered species, save the ecobalance, save the ocean, amazing things, mysterious videos, interesting videos, facts about Earth, why can’t you keep shark captive, bright side, brightside, bright side videos

Id: V4lOjZvtVO8

Length: 10min 53sec (653 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 21 2018