Has anybody tried keeping basking sharks in captivity?

DavidBrown

DavidBrown

Well-Known Member
15+ year member
There is a spate of basking shark sightings off the California coast: Basking sharks could be making a comeback off Ventura coast

This got me wondering if any aquarium has ever tried to keep the species. In this thread there is some discussion of why basking sharks might not be kept in captivity, but no exploration of whether anybody has ever actually tried: How come?

Does anybody know if anyone has tried to keep captive basking sharks in the history of aquariums?
 
Terry Thomas said:
Why would anyone want to? How large would the tank need to be!
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DavidBrown said:
Whale sharks are larger than basking sharks and are kept in several aquariums. Presumably the tank would need to be of comparable size.
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Your average Whale Shark is roughly 10ft larger than your average Basking Shark. Size-wise, appropriate tanks are totally within the realm of possibility.

~Thylo
 
DavidBrown said:
Whale sharks are larger than basking sharks and are kept in several aquariums. Presumably the tank would need to be of comparable size.
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ZooBinh said:
Is it that Basking Sharks are more pelagic than Whale Sharks?
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Not only are Basking Sharks rather more pelagic than are Whale Sharks, but they also cover a much larger range of depths - in the summer breeding season they primarily stay close to the surface, but in the winter it is suspected they largely migrate to the deep sea, although a LOT about this aspect of their lives is frankly unknown. Moreover, unlike the Whale Shark (which is capable of sucking/pumping water manually through the gills) the Basking Shark is reliant on forward motion for this purpose.
 
I'm working on opening a zoo in Ireland and I'm hoping to keep a couple of basking sharks for breeding. Basking sharks are reliant on forward motion for breathing so their tank will have to be about 20 million litres or more (suitable for manta rays who breathe and feed similarly)
 
Given all the previously mentioned factors, plus the fact that even in the wild, breeding of the species is entirely unknown to us and has never been recorded...

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As far as I know, Basking Sharks have never been attempted to be kept. I suspect one reason they aren't kept is that they are a coldwater species, and chilling the extremely large tank it would need to a comfortable temperature would be prohibitively expensive. Why go for the Basking Shark when the Whale Shark is right there, it's tropical (heating water is cheaper than chilling it), is better known and more popular (drawing more visitors), and is probably more readily available.
 
isn't ram feeding the big issue? Even if you build a big enough tank to support such a feeding method it probably would make the animal unable to be viewed often.
 
SusScrofa said:
isn't ram feeding the big issue? Even if you build a big enough tank to support such a feeding method it probably would make the animal unable to be viewed often.
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Well, I figure if they can do it in the Atlanta aquarium with the whale sharks, it can be done with basking sharks too, no?
 
Naomi Brown said:
Well, I figure if they can do it in the Atlanta aquarium with the whale sharks, it can be done with basking sharks too, no?
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No. While seemingly similar, whale sharks and basking sharks do not even belong to the same family of sharks. The whale shark is directly related to bamboo sharks and wobbegongs, but the basking shark belongs to the group known as mackerel sharks, and the majority of the group is made up of species that have never fared in captivity such as the great white, the threshers, and the makos. The biggest problem with potentially keeping baskings however is feeding: the basking shark cannot feed unless it is moving forwards at a steady pace. This is very tricky to impossible to accomplish successfully in tank size alone, besides managing to get enough food into the shark's mouth. By contrast, whale sharks are able to be use suction to pump water into their mouth and out through the gills, a characteristic shared by their close cousins. This allows them to be directly target fed and have most of the food consumed by the shark. True filter feeders like scallops and some fish are already difficult to feed properly in aquaria, a twenty-five to thirty-five foot filter feeding shark is a whole different ball game. We also know very little about the life history of the species, and it is doubtful a captive specimen would live long enough to provide any unknown information. Given the species is classed as endangered, unnecessarily bringing baskings into captivity is not an appropriate venture.

The long and short being, attempting to keep captive basking sharks is both a foolish venture and not in the best interest of the species.
 
Great Argus said:
No. While seemingly similar, whale sharks and basking sharks do not even belong to the same family of sharks. The whale shark is directly related to bamboo sharks and wobbegongs, but the basking shark belongs to the group known as mackerel sharks, and the majority of the group is made up of species that have never fared in captivity such as the great white, the threshers, and the makos. The biggest problem with potentially keeping baskings however is feeding: the basking shark cannot feed unless it is moving forwards at a steady pace. This is very tricky to impossible to accomplish successfully in tank size alone, besides managing to get enough food into the shark's mouth. By contrast, whale sharks are able to be use suction to pump water into their mouth and out through the gills, a characteristic shared by their close cousins. This allows them to be directly target fed and have most of the food consumed by the shark. True filter feeders like scallops and some fish are already difficult to feed properly in aquaria, a twenty-five to thirty-five foot filter feeding shark is a whole different ball game. We also know very little about the life history of the species, and it is doubtful a captive specimen would live long enough to provide any unknown information. Given the species is classed as endangered, unnecessarily bringing baskings into captivity is not an appropriate venture.

The long and short being, attempting to keep captive basking sharks is both a foolish venture and not in the best interest of the species.
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Good to know, thank you for sharing!
 
Naomi Brown said:
I'm working on opening a zoo in Ireland and I'm hoping to keep a couple of basking sharks for breeding. Basking sharks are reliant on forward motion for breathing so their tank will have to be about 20 million litres or more (suitable for manta rays who breathe and feed similarly)
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Tbf if you're planning on opening a zoo and keeping a couple of basking sharks you better hope your bussiness thrive, then maybe your grankids or great-grankids will accomplish such a milestone; you have a lot of work ahead before making new captivity attemps
 
SharkFinatic said:
Greenland sharks probably haven't been much sought after because their deep water habitat might be difficult to replicate in an aquarium.
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There are also sound ecological reasons not to try it. They live a very long time and we know almost nothing about them. The result is that any loss from the wild population can’t be quickly restored and the captive specimen is unlikely to thrive, much less breed.
 
BigNate said:
I have the same question with Greenland sharks
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SharkFinatic said:
Greenland sharks probably haven't been much sought after because their deep water habitat might be difficult to replicate in an aquarium.
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The Pacific counterpart to the Greenland Shark, the Sleeper Shark, has been successfully kept by the Alaska SeaLife Center: Alaska SeaLife Center Studies Elusive Pacific Sleeper Shark - Alaska Sealife Center (More evidence the Alaska SeaLife center is a treasure that needs to stay open).
Great Argus said:
No. While seemingly similar, whale sharks and basking sharks do not even belong to the same family of sharks. The whale shark is directly related to bamboo sharks and wobbegongs, but the basking shark belongs to the group known as mackerel sharks, and the majority of the group is made up of species that have never fared in captivity such as the great white, the threshers, and the makos. The biggest problem with potentially keeping baskings however is feeding: the basking shark cannot feed unless it is moving forwards at a steady pace. This is very tricky to impossible to accomplish successfully in tank size alone, besides managing to get enough food into the shark's mouth. By contrast, whale sharks are able to be use suction to pump water into their mouth and out through the gills, a characteristic shared by their close cousins. This allows them to be directly target fed and have most of the food consumed by the shark. True filter feeders like scallops and some fish are already difficult to feed properly in aquaria, a twenty-five to thirty-five foot filter feeding shark is a whole different ball game. We also know very little about the life history of the species, and it is doubtful a captive specimen would live long enough to provide any unknown information. Given the species is classed as endangered, unnecessarily bringing baskings into captivity is not an appropriate venture.

The long and short being, attempting to keep captive basking sharks is both a foolish venture and not in the best interest of the species.
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Whale sharks don’t do stationary target feedings they do moving filter feeds similar to what basking sharks would need:
The real reason holding a basking shark in captivity is what Great Argus mentioned earlier about the Mackerel Sharks. Basking Sharks come from a group of sharks that are pelagic. They are designed to trek long distances and need large amounts of space to thrive. It’s the same reason Great Whites and Leatherback Sea Turtles are impossible to keep, they just swim into the wall until they die.
 
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