The risk of swimming with Georgia Aquarium’s whale sharks
April 16, 2008 at 9:39 am by Scott Freeman in NewsLast week, we published a story that outlined strong concerns within the marine community about the Georgia Aquarium’s “Swimming With Gentle Giants” program that allows the public to scuba dive in the whale shark tank for 30 minutes.
A few days later, the AJC published this story that herald’s a new aquarium initiative: for $3,170, the public can now get in the water with the whale sharks at the aquarium one day, then jet to Mexico the next day to swim with them in the wild. It’s billed as a green-friendly “eco-tour.” The trip includes five-star accommodations at the Ritz-Carlton.
But there’s nary a word in the AJC article about the possible risk to the whale sharks that allowing the public into their tank poses. And also nary a word that two whale sharks died last year at the aquarium.
(Photo by Joeff Davis)
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