Pelagic aquariums with walkthrough tunnel instead of big window?

[HomerSimpson101]

If pelagic sharks and fishes (tuna) keep bumping their noses into large acrylic viewing windows, why haven't aquariums built a tank that only has a walkthrough tunnel?

According to this YouTube video (at 3:23), great white sharks keep ramming their noses onto the acrylic viewing window of the tank:

 

[flatstingray]

There is a lot more nuance and details to what the VOX reporting describes, but focussing on the acrylic window.... it is not the only/main issue. In general, pelagic species have trouble facing barriers (walls, windows, sloped ones, straight ones...).

At a University, experiments involving captivity with leatherback sea turtle (Dermochelys coriacea) in the early 2000´s stated that:

"As leatherbacks are oceanic-pelagic animals that swim continuously and do not recognize vertical and horizontal barriers (tank walls & bottom)...." (Todd-Jones, T., 2009).

They managed to keep them using a harness type system suspended from above.

Species that are none pelagic, which had faced a similar situation of ramming into the walls like the Tiger shark (Galeocerdo cuvier) at Acuario de Veracruz, Mexico, have succesfully been kept for several years in captivity, to a point that thier release was partially related to the tiger shark outgrowing the available spece at its exhibit. In Veracruz, they used fake coral and other temporary elements to make the tank barriers distinguishable for the shark. A similar approach has been used while introducing Giant Manta ray (Mobula birostris) to aquariums, I believe in either/both France and USA.

So I believe that, with, potentially horizontally larger facilities and specifically designed for few pelagic species, success could be found with some species.

Now, the a similar solution to what you describe, might be the Oculus at the Gulf Stream Aquarium, of the Phillip & Patricia Frost Museum of Science, at Miami, USA. While it "only" holds 500,000 gallons, the only acrylic is on the bottom of the tank, so fish would not really find it on their swimming patterns.

 

[Local_Shark]

If pelagic sharks and fishes (tuna) keep bumping their noses into large acrylic viewing windows, why haven't aquariums built a tank that only has a walkthrough tunnel?

The windows themselves aren’t per se the issue. There’s a lot of nuance here, as flatstingray pointed out, but in some ways it’s rather simple: large, continuously moving fish and other animals do not necessarily tolerate any kind of confinement. The leatherback turtles that have been attempted would run into the walls of the tank as well as the glass, and the same goes for great white sharks on the multitude of times they’ve been attempted. However, as stated above, some larger and slightly more pelagic shark and ray species like whale sharks, tiger sharks, and manta rays have tolerated vastly larger and more specially designed tanks in recent years (Georgia’s for example is 6.3 million gallons). Recently, some other interesting concepts have been attempted, such as SeaWorld Abu Dhabi’s gigantic tank that features walls with video projections of seamounts/undersea canyons that make it look as though it is continuous. They have not really tested how that affects many pelagic species, though I think they do have a giant oceanic manta.

Now, the a similar solution to what you describe, might be the Oculus at the Gulf Stream Aquarium, of the Phillip & Patricia Frost Museum of Science, at Miami, USA. While it "only" holds 500,000 gallons, the only acrylic is on the bottom of the tank, so fish would not really find it on their swimming patterns.

You’re exactly right, I think. I’ve long suspected that other tanks designed in this fashion would be very strong for pelagic animals. It’s essentially a gigantic racetrack tank due to the current that moves in a continuous circle, but unlike traditional racetrack tanks, it doesn’t have a single channel of the animals are forced to go through. It’s much more of a simulation of the actual open ocean. I wager that a larger version of this design would be strong if utilized for larger animals or more animals.