Monterey Bay Aquarium Why hasn't the Monterey Bay Aquarium tried placing a basking shark in their aquarium?

They perfected keeping a great white shark in captivity for a few months, and why haven't they tried keeping a young basking shark in captivity? Their Open Sea tank is cold water, so a basking shark can thrive inside.

 

They didn't perfect keeping Great White Shark, hence why they only kept it for a few months.

There is no doubt keeping Basking Shark would be much harder.

 

That would be so exciting to see. But keeping a very large coastal-pelagic shark in captivity for a reasonable length of time would be very challenging. Even at the size of the tank at Monterey it would be tough to keep them as they have to keep moving to breath and eat. Keeping them is not really the same as keeping a whale shark. There is a pretty good thread on the topic here.

 

I'm not sure anyone has ever actually caught a live juvenile basking shark. Even sightings of young individuals are pretty rare.

 

Sorry to double post but I actually have some relevant information regarding this subject.

I had heard of at least one aquarium considering the feasibility of displaying a basking shark, but I wanted to dig up some supplementary material to be sure before I shared.

Believe it or not, New England Aquarium did look into basking sharks as part of a failed expansion around the year 2000. There were plans for a Monterey-style "open sea" exhibit for larger pelagic fishes and turtles native to the region. As I understand it the tank would have been in the ballpark of one million gallons.

 

Any idea how "real" the idea was? Sometimes artists and architects dream up the improbably/impossible, for example the marlin and manatees in Wildlife World's aquarium renderings/plans.

 

I actually recall this after looking at that rendering. It was supposed to be based off of species from Stellewagens Bank. How far they took it was moot because they never got funding for most of their ambitious masterplan

 

“Of all the words of tongue or pen …”
Actually a “rescued “Basking shark was displayed at the Coney Island aquarium in the early 1960s.
I saw it
It was in poor condition and expired soon afterward.

Most of the truly unique species exhibited are generally beached or dying animals with no intention by aquaria to breed or permanently exhibit them.
To my recollection Coney Island displayed Leatherback turtle, Pilot whale and , even, Narwhal and False Killer whale.
One also recalls San Diego temporarily housing a Grey whale.
Coney Island once displayed Atlantic walrus and Elephant seals.
Its predecessor at Battery Park held manatee and West Indian Monk seal

 

As others have said in other words, it was about as real as any other exhibit concept. Around that same time NEAQ had some very ambitious plans (pilot whales, white sided dolphins, walrus, white shark) that mostly did not happen. The aquarium's current "west wing" area was initially a part of this plan though and was the only part to actually materialize.