Whale shark at the Georgia Aquarium (File photo/Dave Bender)
In captivity, a 25-foot whale shark glides gracefully above a throng of enthralled tourists who hurriedly snap pictures from inside a clear tunnel at the Georgia Aquarium's giant six-million-gallon Ocean Voyager tank.
A school of manta rays silently glide overhead, as spectators gaze from within a glassed-in tunnel, below. (file photo/Dave Bender)
In the wild, whale sharks live much more hidden lives. Little is known about how much they eat, where they swim and where they give birth.
But since the Atlanta attraction opened in 2005, more than 5 million guests have helped generate hundreds of thousands of dollars for new research into whale sharks - revealing new details about their nutrition, roaming habits and numbers.
Aquarium executive director Jeff Swanagan once quipped that the sea's largest fish, which can reach more than 27 feet in length and weigh a couple of tons, are the least known by marine researchers.
So the world's largest aquarium didn't start with a manual on how best to handle its four whale sharks, more than are held in any other aquarium in the world.
"'Whale Sharks for Dummies'? The book hasn't been written. We're kind of writing it as we go along," says Bruce Carlson, the aquarium's chief science officer.But aquarium officials set out to learn more, investing in research projects on the whale shark in Mexico and Taiwan. Satellite tags on the Mexico whale sharks have helped track them from the Yucatan Peninsula across the Gulf of Mexico, the Straits of Florida and the Caribbean.
"We learn more about the animals we're caring for and we can care for them better," said Carlson. "Other people have funded research but really, the major whale shark funding comes from us."Carlson declined to say exactly how much the aquarium has spent on whale shark research but said it was in the "hundreds of thousands of dollars."
He and other researchers hope other studies answer more questions about whale sharks' lives: Where do they travel and how much do they eat? The mating behavior of the animals has never been observed, nor do researchers know where the whale sharks give birth.
"This collaboration with the Georgia Aquarium is so exciting - it's the first opportunity to really unravel what these animals are doing in this hemisphere," said Robert Hueter, director of the Center for Shark Research at the Sarasota, Fla. Mote Marine Laboratory, which collaborates with the aquarium and Mexico officials. "We are able to not only work on these animals in the wild, but have access to the four animals there in the aquarium."The aquarium's captive whale sharks - males Yushan and Taroko, and females Alice and Trixie - also have yielded important information for researchers. Studying them allows researchers to do things "that you can't do in the ocean," Carlson said.
Young girl watches, transfixed, as ghostly jellyfish meander just past the thick safety glass. (file photo/Dave Bender)
