After my post about swimming with whale sharks in Australia<\/a> some people commented they would afraid to do it, so I started research about any aquariums in the world to see whale sharks. I named my post as TOP 5 aquariums, but after short research I found information only about 7 aquariums featuring whale sharks so here is full list.<\/p>\n To be honest I am not big lover of aquariums or zoo. My preference is to see animals in their natural environment.\u00a0 According to the study done at Okinawa aquarium<\/a> whale sharks live for only average 16 months in captivity. Naturally they can live up to 70 years. So personally I probably won\u2019t be visiting any of these aquariums and would prefer to swim with whale sharks<\/a> again or just go for whale watching tour<\/a>.<\/p>\n According Wikipedia<\/a> it should be two whale sharks at Polar Ocean World<\/a>, but I didn\u2019t find any other sources confirming that and on their web page did see only pictures of Beluga whales, but nothing about whale sharks.<\/p>\n Yantai Aquarium is another aquarium with no much information, except huge concern<\/a> from conservationists as there are 5 whale sharks in very tiny 27 meters by 16 meters (88 feet by 52 feet) aquarium. \u00a0It is hard to imagine 10-15 meters (30-50 feet) long adult whale shark in such \u201cbox\u201d.<\/p>\n At Kenting National Museum of Biology and Aquarium<\/a> there is aquarium called The Open Ocean Aquarium. There is no information about measurements except it is largest aquarium in Taiwan and besides 13 dolphins it features one 16 meters (52 feet) long whale shark.<\/p>\n Because all official information about Ioworld Aquarium<\/a> is in Japanese it is hard to find precise numbers. According online reviews the aquarium isn’t too big and presentations are in Japanese, but it is not crowded and features single whale shark.<\/p>\n The largest tank \u201cPacific Ocean\u201d in Kaiyukan aquarium<\/a> is 9 metres (30 feet) deep and holds 5.4 million liters (1.4 million US gallons) of water. \u00a0Besides whale shark you can see Manta ray, Bluefin tuna, Spotted eagle ray in the \u201cPacific Ocean\u201d.<\/p>\n7. Polar Ocean World, Qingdao, China<\/h3>\n
6. Yantai Aquarium, China<\/h3>\n
5. Kenting National Museum of Biology and Aquarium, Taiwan<\/h3>\n
4. Ioworld Aquarium, Kagoshima, Japan<\/h3>\n
3. Kaiyukan Aquarium, Osaka, Japan<\/h3>\n
2. Churaumi Aquarium, Okinawa, Japan<\/h3>\n