We just added 50 new fish to the save our seas foundation shark exhibit! how do we stop the sharks f

We recently added a school of 50 new Atlantic bonito to the Save Our Seas Foundation Shark Exhibit at the Two Oceans Aquarium and were asked an interesting question - why don’t the sharks eat the new fish? Good question - let's investigate!

The first thing to consider is our ethical considerations as an aquarium - firstly, we have the ethical responsibility to ensure that the habitats we provide our animals with are safe and suitable (that means not adding fish to an exhibit where we know they will be eaten), and we also have an ethical responsibility to ensure that the natural behaviours and instincts of animals that will be released back into the wild (in other words, we don't "tame" the sharks). With that in mind, here's how we do it:

Ragged-tooth sharks, as with many of the top-level ocean predators, are incredibly efficient hunters - this means they don't waste energy randomly attacking fish unless they are actually in need of a meal and have a good opportunity to feed, particularly in the cover of darkness in the case of ragged-tooth sharks. What this means is that simply by feeding the sharks regularly, keeping track of their eating habits, and monitoring their behaviours and responding accordingly, our aquarists can ensure that the sharks don't need to hunt the fish they share an exhibit with, and won't take advantage of confused newly added fish after a mealtime. In other words, efficient, well-fed predators are too lazy to chase fast-moving fish!

You may have noticed that certain shark species, like ragged-tooth sharks, are actually quite commonly kept in aquariums around the world. We've already spoken about some of the reasons for this, like their ability to breathe without moving, but it also comes down to feeding habits - predators that live in natural habitats like the deep sea or open ocean may not have the luxury of being able to rely on regular feeding opportunities and may be opportunistic hunters - a trait that would be difficult to ethically compensate for in an aquarium environment. For this reason, aquarium's don't simply collect random fish - very careful planning goes into selecting animals that we know are compatible and can thrive in the environment we provide.

Do things ever go wrong? Absolutely! Although every effort is made to accommodate the natural habits of these animals, sometimes something unexpected happens and a fish gets eaten - loadshedding and failed generators plunging the exhibit into darkness the day before mealtime, a confused fish literally swimming into a sharks mouth (it happens), or a shark simply feeling unusually hungry despite our recordkeeping. Our job is to do everything we can to minimise these incidents.