Aquatic Zoos
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AQUATIC ZOOS A critical study of UK public aquaria in the year 2004 by Jordi Casamitjana CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------4 METHODS ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------7 Definition ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------7 Sampling and public aquarium visits --------------------------------------------------------------7 Analysis of the data --------------------------------------------------------------------------------10 UK PUBLIC AQUARIA PROFILE ------------------------------------------------------------------------11 Types of public aquaria ----------------------------------------------------------------------------11 Animals kept in UK public aquaria----------------------------------------------------------------12 Number of exhibits in UK pubic aquaria --------------------------------------------------------18 Biomes of taxa kept in UK public aquaria ------------------------------------------------------19 Exotic versus local taxa kept in UK public aquaria --------------------------------------------20 Trend in the taxa kept in UK public aquaria over the years ---------------------------------21 ANIMAL WELFARE IN UK PUBLIC AQUARIA ------------------------------------------------------23 ABNORMAL BEHAVIOUR --------------------------------------------------------------------------23 Occurrence of stereotypy in UK public aquaria --------------------------------------29 Stereotypic animals per type of public aquarium ------------------------------------31 Types of stereotypic behaviour in UK public aquaria --------------------------------32 Types of animals showing stereotypic behaviour in UK public aquaria ---------–34 ‘Stereotypic flashing’ behaviour --------------------------------------------------------35 Surface Breaking Behaviour (SBB) -----------------------------------------------------38 PHYSICAL HEALTH --------------------------------------------------------------------------------42 Evidence of physical health problems in UK public aquaria ------------------------43 Mortality and Morbidity in UK public aquaria -----------------------------------------46 Husbandry methods in UK public aquaria as cause of animal health problems ---------------------------------------------------51 2 CONSERVATION IN UK PUBLIC AQUARIA ---------------------------------------------------------57 Threatened taxa kept in UK public aquaria------------------------------------------------------59 Animals in UK public aquaria part of co-ordinated captive breeding programmes ----------------------------------------------------61 Reintroduction of animals into the wild by UK public aquaria -------------------------------62 Wild-caught animals in UK public aquaria ------------------------------------------------------65 In situ conservation in UK public aquaria -------------------------------------------------------69 Threatened animals in UK public aquarium restaurants’ menus ----------------------------71 The Seahorses ‘conservation’ flagship -----------------------------------------------------------72 EDUCATION IN UK PUBLIC AQUARIA ---------------------------------------------------------------77 Reading exhibit signs in UK public aquaria -----------------------------------------------------77 Lack of exhibit signs in UK public aquaria ------------------------------------------------------82 The education message of UK public aquaria --------------------------------------------------84 SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH IN UK PUBLIC AQUARIA -----------------------------------------------90 EXHIBIT DESIGN IN UK PUBLIC AQUARIA --------------------------------------------------------93 Modernity in UK public aquaria exhibits ---------------------------------------------------------96 Exhibit substrates in UK public aquaria ---------------------------------------------------------98 Open/closed tank design in UK public aquaria ----------------------------------------------100 Mixed exhibits in UK public aquaria ------------------------------------------------------------103 Obvious bad exhibits in UK public aquaria ----------------------------------------------------105 ANIMAL/VISITOR INTERACTIONS IN UK PUBLIC AQUARIA -------------------------------109 Visitors touching animals in UK public aquaria -----------------------------------------------109 Visitors touching rays and small sharks in UK public aquaria-------------------------------113 Visitor misconduct in UK public aquaria -------------------------------------------------------116 Visitors diving with fish in UK public aquaria -------------------------------------------------120 CONCLUSIONS --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------122 Specific conclusions -------------------------------------------------------------------------------122 General conclusions ------------------------------------------------------------------------------125 BIBLIOGRAPHY -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------128 3 INTRODUCTION Just as zoos are, public aquaria are a common and well-known feature of modern industrialised society. It is almost impossible not to come across one when browsing any developed country tourist information brochure, especially when looking at big cities by the sea, or coastal tourist resources. The first known ‘modern’ public aquarium was the fish house at London Zoo, which opened in 1853 (Gosse, 1854). Soon public aquaria became quite popular in the Victorian era and were quickly constructed all throughout Europe (Gilbert, 1970). Since then, pretty much every fish that can be caught alive has been taken to public aquaria for exhibition, even if many might have not survived for long. Contrary to the popular belief, sharks began being displayed in public aquaria from the very beginning (Koob, 2001), in cities such as Berlin (1869), Frankfurt (1872), Napels (1874), Hamburg (1884), Helgoland (1892), Rovigno (1892), New York (1896), Monaco (1905), and, of course, Brighton (1872) and Plymouth (1888), which together with London probably represent the three main cities that gave birth to the public aquarium industry in the UK. By 1920 over 45 major public aquaria in the world were already drawing 10 million visitors a year (Koob, 2001). Since then the public aquarium industry has flourished even more. A survey of the main European public aquaria undertaken six years ago (Blanch et al, 1999) found that in the whole of EU there were 70 public aquaria, 17 of which could be classed as new-generation ‘exhibition’ aquaria, which are characterised for their big sizes (between 1,400 and 18,000 square metres), big investments (between €4,5 and €92.5 million), huge water volumes (between 300 and 6000 cubic metres) and very big tanks (the biggest holding 4,700 cubic metres of water). Although in terms of investment and sizes American and Japanese new generation public aquaria outperform the EU ones, overall it does seem that public aquaria are growing both in numbers and sizes, all over the world. The same survey concluded that in 1998 Europe’s leading public aquaria attracted 17,615,000 visitors, almost doubling the world figures for 80 years earlier. Although it is difficult to ascertain the accuracy of these estimations –it is obvious that the survey only looked at the main centres of each country– this information, together with the general impression of the state of the industry in the first years of this century, points towards the conclusion that the public aquarium industry is thriving rather than receding. Indeed, the number of free-standing members of public aquaria in the American Zoo and Aquarium Association has more than doubled since 1989 (Hunter, 2003), and the number of new chains of public aquaria has proliferated in the last three years in the UK. More than ever, it seems, fish and aquatic invertebrates are being kept in captivity for exhibition, and if there was ever anything wrong with this, or if ever there had been a more likely time to find aquatic animals exposed to the wrong environment, now seems to be the time to look at the problems public aquaria cause to the millions of animals they exhibit. There are, however, other reasons beyond numbers for paying attention now to the welfare of animals kept in public aquaria. Some species that up until now had managed to escape life in an aquarium (i.e. deep sea animals, or the biggest sharks) are under increasing pressure of being the first to be exhibited by those public aquaria that try to beat the growing number of competitors by having something nobody else has. More and more animals exhibited are forced closer and closer to the general public in order to exploit people’s thirst for ‘close up’ and ‘hands on’ experiences, without which a visit to the already commonly seen aquarium would perhaps be too boring. The recent incorporation of new practices into the landscape of UK public aquaria, such as visitors diving with sharks, are opening new possibilities of animal welfare and human safety problems that were not possible a few years ago. The popularity of the recent film “Finding Nemo” has put fish into people’s conscience in such a way that it seems to have awoken in some the realisation that, after all, fish are sentient beings with the same kind of problems any captive animal has. However, it also has generated an increase of the acquisition