Comments by "Angry Kittens" (@AngryKittens) on "Why no aquarium has a great white shark" video.

  1. As I've said elsewhere, MBA is a non-profit conservation and research aquarium. It is not an animal circus like SeaWorld. And no. Not all zoos and aquaria are "prisons". A lot of animals today actually survive only in zoos. They'd have long gone extinct if not for them. Breeding and repopulation programs are important, as well as research. They aren't always magically better off in the wild, especially if their natural habitats are already gone in the first place. The only real problems arise when it comes to zoos and aquaria which are built solely for profit or to entertain. In which case, you'll see animals being forced to perform or kept in horrible conditions that don't remotely resemble their wild habitats.
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  2. A lot of folks here seems to think MBA is SeaWorld. It's not. MBA is a non-profit conservation and research aquarium. It is run and funded by scientists, like its sister organization MBARI (which also deals with conservation and ocean exploration). It is not an animal circus like SeaWorld. It does not keep whales or dolphins or any other mammals (except for sea otters which acclimate very well to captivity). The only reason they kept great white sharks in the first place was to study them for conservation purposes. Which is why they are released after only a few months back into the wild.
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  3. TheFlowMind Again, you are making the assumption that the Monterey Bay Aquarium is doing this for money. MBA is a non-profit organization. They do what they do for conservation and research, as well as outreach. It is run by scientists, not by corporations or entertainment executives. 2/3rds of their workforce are volunteers, and they don't keep whales or dolphins or any large mammals. MBA is also the sister organization of MBARI. Another non-profit dedicated to conservation, research, and oceanographic exploration, famous for their deep sea ROV submarines. The latter is one of the most respected scientific organizations in the world, and can be characterized as the NASA of the deep sea. Moreover don't anthropomorphize animals by assuming they want freedom like humans do. The vast majority of animals live in very tiny environments, and they acclimate very well to captivity. As long as it resembles their natural habitat closely enough, they will usually thrive far better than in the wild. It is usually only with larger animals that captivity becomes more problematic. But sometimes it is unavoidable in the interests of preventing them from going extinct in the first place. That is the case here with great white sharks. Despite having multiple movies made about them, we actually know very little about them in real life. To conserve them, we must understand them first. Sure, places like SeaWorld are horrible. But not all zoos and aquaria are there to exploit animals. Some are there to help.
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  4. Most of those sharks were accidentally caught. All of them are kept in the Monterey Bay Aquarium for only a few months. None of them were ever planned to be permanent residents. The research aim of MBA itself is to understand great whites more so they are better protected in the wild. The paradox of conservation is that you can not help something if you do not know how to help them. And finding that out can incur necessary harm.
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