Seattle Aquarium's new ocean pavilion highlights global shark conservation efforts
Global approach to expansion fueling pathbreaking "ReShark" project
by Leah Downing | Oct. 9, 2024
Seattle Aquarium’s new Ocean Pavilion opened to the public August 29, showcasing the Indo-Pacific leopard shark, the focus of the aquarium’s recent international conservation work.
The aquarium is stepping beyond the Puget Sound to explore the connectivity of marine ecosystems around the world as “One Ocean,” presenting more than 100 species and multiple new habitats and focusing on the tropical Coral Triangle between the Pacific and Indian oceans.
“Our mission has always been to inspire conservation of our marine environment and that hasn’t changed,” said Seattle Aquarium President and CEO Bob Davidson in an August 13 statement. “We now need to take a global approach and think beyond our Pacific Northwest shores. We have one ocean and to protect it, we need to understand how we’re all connected.”
The new building’s central attraction is a 500,000 gallon space called The Reef, now the largest tropical habitat in the Pacific Northwest. Bowmouth guitarfish, eagle rays, and hundreds of tropical fish glide through The Reef alongside one of the aquarium’s leopard sharks, which the Seattle Aquarium works to protect through the ReShark coalition.
ReShark explains that sharks help balance the food web but suffer slow population growth. Hands-on human intervention can make a difference. ReShark’s current Stegostoma tigrinum Augmentation and Recovery (StAR) project focuses on leopard shark conservation in marine protected areas of Indonesia. Public Relations Specialist Emily Malone explained in an email that the aquarium’s partnership with ReShark aims to protect threatened shark and ray species globally. The coalition was launched in 2020 by the aquarium and its global partners. The Indo-Pacific leopard shark is at the center of the coalition’s efforts.
“It’s endangered in Indonesia but does very well in public, accredited aquariums,” Malone said in an email.
“Here’s how the program works,” she continued, “eggs from accredited aquariums are shipped to the Seattle Aquarium’s offsite Animal Care Center, where [they] are cared for until it’s time to ship them to Indonesia. Once in Indonesia, the eggs are moved to nurseries where they will hatch and be cared for by local aquarists. Once they are old enough and large enough, the shark pups will be released into marine protected areas in Indonesia.”
The aquarium expansion spotlights ReShark in their central exhibit and in One Ocean Hall, which displays various videos in a 360 space, some highlighting their work with sharks. The aquarium houses two leopard sharks, one behind-the-scenes and one in The Reef, and plans to join ReShark’s 10 additional breeding institutions when their sharks are older, helping to release more young sharks into the wild.
Global approach to expansion fueling pathbreaking "ReShark" project
by Leah Downing | Oct. 9, 2024
Seattle Aquarium’s new Ocean Pavilion opened to the public August 29, showcasing the Indo-Pacific leopard shark, the focus of the aquarium’s recent international conservation work.
The aquarium is stepping beyond the Puget Sound to explore the connectivity of marine ecosystems around the world as “One Ocean,” presenting more than 100 species and multiple new habitats and focusing on the tropical Coral Triangle between the Pacific and Indian oceans.
“Our mission has always been to inspire conservation of our marine environment and that hasn’t changed,” said Seattle Aquarium President and CEO Bob Davidson in an August 13 statement. “We now need to take a global approach and think beyond our Pacific Northwest shores. We have one ocean and to protect it, we need to understand how we’re all connected.”
The new building’s central attraction is a 500,000 gallon space called The Reef, now the largest tropical habitat in the Pacific Northwest. Bowmouth guitarfish, eagle rays, and hundreds of tropical fish glide through The Reef alongside one of the aquarium’s leopard sharks, which the Seattle Aquarium works to protect through the ReShark coalition.
ReShark explains that sharks help balance the food web but suffer slow population growth. Hands-on human intervention can make a difference. ReShark’s current Stegostoma tigrinum Augmentation and Recovery (StAR) project focuses on leopard shark conservation in marine protected areas of Indonesia. Public Relations Specialist Emily Malone explained in an email that the aquarium’s partnership with ReShark aims to protect threatened shark and ray species globally. The coalition was launched in 2020 by the aquarium and its global partners. The Indo-Pacific leopard shark is at the center of the coalition’s efforts.
“It’s endangered in Indonesia but does very well in public, accredited aquariums,” Malone said in an email.
“Here’s how the program works,” she continued, “eggs from accredited aquariums are shipped to the Seattle Aquarium’s offsite Animal Care Center, where [they] are cared for until it’s time to ship them to Indonesia. Once in Indonesia, the eggs are moved to nurseries where they will hatch and be cared for by local aquarists. Once they are old enough and large enough, the shark pups will be released into marine protected areas in Indonesia.”
The aquarium expansion spotlights ReShark in their central exhibit and in One Ocean Hall, which displays various videos in a 360 space, some highlighting their work with sharks. The aquarium houses two leopard sharks, one behind-the-scenes and one in The Reef, and plans to join ReShark’s 10 additional breeding institutions when their sharks are older, helping to release more young sharks into the wild.
