Kassandra, DON'T feel bad for starting this thread. If anything, this whole thing highlights the importance of sharing this information! Kudos to you!
As to swimming in aquariums, there was actually a whole thread about that a little while back, and Mermaid Cora from Reef HQ Aquarium in Queensland actually posted a REALLY detailed and insightful comment about it. I'll see if I can find that thread and link it here. For those who don't know, Cora works full time as an aquarist there (we actually went to the same university!) but also performs there as a mermaid, so she has a really good viewpoint of both sides.
KayNS, your point about ocean literacy is right on! Seeing such amazing creatures in real life gives you a feeling of connection that even the most wonderfully filmed documentary can never give you. As for your second point, about the morality of keeping animals in captivity, I actually addressed all of those questions in my first post in this thread
But I'm also going to expand on those points and provide further information. I completely understand that a lot of people question the morality of captivity. I myself am 100% AGAINST animals being exploited for entertainment and improperly cared for, just to be clear. I'm a bleeding-heart animal lover, trust me. I've also worked in aquarium stores a couple of times and I'm that person who is more likely to tell you NOT to buy the fishes if I don't think your tank is big enough or that you don't know how to take care of them, haha. Believe me, I'm pretty much a crusader for animals being treated as well as possible.
So, I guess because this discussion is finally back on track and continuing in this thread (whew), I will continue to post information here. I'll probably break it up into a few different posts, though, to keep it easier to read and so I don't have to keep putting it off until I have the time to sit down and write one gigantic epic mega-post. Also, if any other biologists and aquarists on here want to weigh in with their experiences or add any information I may have missed, PLEASE do so! I certainly don't pretend that I know all there is to know and I LOVE to learn from other people and hear about their experiences!
Ok, first, I'll provide some background information about how aquariums (and zoos, for that matter) are regulated and accredited. All the statements I've already made about aquariums generally pertain to accredited institutions (non-accredited ones can be hit or miss and you kind of have to take them on a case-by-case basis, they're a little harder to evaluate and you can't make any blanket statements about them). The big regulating organization for zoos and aquariums in the US (and for some other countries) is
Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA). Check out their website, as it provides a TON of information about how this works, but I'll summarize it here and quote a few parts. AZA conducts rigorous inspections and provides accreditation for all zoological institutions that seek AZA member status. As you can see on their
Accreditation page, accreditation is "official recognition and approval of a zoo or aquarium by a group of experts. These experts, called the AZA Accreditation Commission, carefully examine each zoo or aquarium that applies for AZA membership. Only those zoos and aquariums that meet our high standards can become members of AZA." Maintaining AZA accreditation status is also an ongoing process, not just a one-time pass: "AZA accredited zoos and aquariums are constantly evolving and standards are continuously being raised. Each zoo or aquarium must keep up with these changes to remain AZA accredited. And to prove it, they must go through the entire accreditation process every five years. AZA believes that nothing is more important than assuring the highest standards of animal care and our accreditation process does just that!" Aquariums and zoos can definitely lose their accreditation if they fail to remain up to standards. In that case, they'll have to go through a lengthy review process to prove that they're worthy of re-accreditation. There is a
list of currently accredited zoos and aquariums, and you can also look for the AZA logo on an institution's website or at the institution itself.
There are a lot of benefits that zoos and aquariums gain from being accredited.
Here is a summary they provide of the benefits for aquariums. AZA provides professional development training and all sorts of seminars and conferences to promote better animal husbandry and innovation to help zoos and aquariums constantly improve their facilities. For example: "Animal husbandry practices ensure that the physiological, biological, psychological, and social needs of the animals cared for in AZA-accredited zoos and aquariums are addressed. Providing for good animal welfare encompasses both ethical and scientific responsibilities. AZA-accredited institutions have an ethical responsibility to ensure the well-being of the animals in their care. In addition, AZA-accredited institutions have a scientific responsibility to gain a greater understanding of the well-being of the animals in their care by advancing animal welfare science."
There is also a lot of emphasis on
field conservation,
reintroduction programs (check that page to see examples of species that have been successfully reintroduced into the wild and essentially saved from extinction),
sustainability,
conservation initiatives (including ocean conservation and marine mammal conservation), and
conservation research. AZA institutions are also allowed to participate in
Species Survival Plans (SSPs), which are comprehensive and carefully designed breeding programs, each one focused on a particular endangered species "to ensure the sustainability of a healthy, genetically diverse, and demographically varied AZA population". This actually means cooperation between multiple different zoos or aquariums so that animals can be transfered between them to produce the most beneficial genetic pairings (this prevents a genetic bottleneck, which can be a huge problem with restricted populations and leads to a loss of genetic diversity and therefore a less healthy population or species with a higher incidence of detrimental genetic conditions and higher probability of going extinct).
AZA also works in cooperation with
IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature), which is another independent organization that assesses how threatened or endangered different species are, and works to find and provide environmental conservation solutions. The
IUCN Red List is a really useful tool if you want to look up the conservation status of a particular species.
I hope that wasn't too much of an info-dump, but that's just an introduction, really. I'll come back later and post more stuff on other related topics!
Originally Posted by Theobromine
Kassandra, DON'T feel bad for starting this thread. If anything, this whole thing highlights the importance of sharing this information! Kudos to you!
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