Captivity tends to be fatal for whale sharks.

By Naomi A. Rose

Today a whale shark at the Georgia Aquarium died—the second in five months. As went Ralph, so went Norton. Now both of the original whale sharks at that facility are dead.

The Humane Society of the United States does not have a crystal ball, although we predicted in advance that Gasper (one of the Aquarium's original beluga whales), Ralph and Norton all would die. We simply have experience, and we know the sad history of captivity for cetaceans and other large "exotic" marine life such as whale sharks.

The Georgia Aquarium has presented itself from the beginning as an education and conservation center, but what has it learned from this experience? Instead of rethinking the wisdom of displaying whale sharks, about whom little is known and who are held in very few facilities, largely because previous attempts to keep them alive have failed, the Aquarium has just acquired two more whale sharks from Taiwan. (These two join two who arrived last year—the Aquarium now holds four.)

Even Taiwan has learned something from this debacle—before these last two whale sharks left the country (the government stated that it was contractually obligated to fulfill the Aquarium's original order for six sharks), it banned further exports of whale sharks or their products. This action was applauded by the Georgia Aquarium as an important conservation measure, which, of course, it was. Ironically, the Aquarium did not mention that the negative public relations associated with Ralph's death was a major influence on Taiwan's decision.

And now Norton too is dead. The media stories to date have not recorded the official reaction of Jeff Swanagan, the Aquarium's director, or of Bernie Marcus, the Home Depot mogul who founded the facility. 

I imagine the Aquarium's publicity machine will once again expound on how all living things die, how nature is cruel and how no one could have foreseen this sad event. Except Ralph and Norton were young, a tank is not nature, and several parties, including whale shark experts and The HSUS, predicted this would happen.

Only time will tell what lies in store for the remaining beluga whales and whale sharks at the Georgia Aquarium. None of the remaining sharks were in the tank when it was treated with a chemical to control parasites, so perhaps they will will survive longer than Ralph and Norton. Perhaps they will not suffer a lack of appetite and have to endure force-feedings in their last weeks of life, as Ralph and Norton did.

But if the Georgia Aquarium is truly an education center, it should tell the truth to its visitors about why Ralph and Norton died.

Naomi Rose, Ph.D., is the marine mammal scientist for Humane Society International