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EveryFish

Aquarium or research, Japan

Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium

The aquarium at Motobu, Okinawa, whose Kuroshio Sea tank holds whale sharks and manta rays.

Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium opened in 2002 in Ocean Expo Park on the Motobu peninsula of Okinawa, replacing an older aquarium on the same site. Its centrepiece, the Kuroshio Sea tank, named after the warm current that flows past Japan, holds about 7,500 cubic metres of water, with whale sharks and manta rays swimming among schools of tuna and other fish.

Whale sharks and mantas

The aquarium has kept whale sharks for many years, and one male lived on site for more than two decades, longer than any other in captivity. In 2007 it recorded the first birth of a manta ray in an aquarium, and more births have followed. The research staff study shark reproduction and have tracked whale sharks and mantas after release into the sea around Okinawa.

Okinawa's reefs

Other tanks show the coral reefs of Okinawa, kept alive with sea water pumped in from the nearby ocean, and the deep sea of the Ryukyu Trench. The reefs around Okinawa have suffered from bleaching, especially in 1998 and 2016, and from crown-of-thorns starfish. The aquarium is run by the Okinawa Churashima Foundation, which also works on coral and sea turtle conservation.

Fish of Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium

Whale sharkIn the Kuroshio Sea tank

Still to be written: Reef manta ray, Ocellaris clownfish.

Photo credits on this page

The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.

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