For many years, the shopping and leisure center "Mega" was the only place in Lithuania where you could see sharks. Sharks, together with more than two hundred over 40 different species from the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific, Red, Mediterranean and Caribbean seas, have delighted visitors to the shopping center for almost 20 years. They were especially liked by the schoolchildren who came to the educational-entertainment excursions "Secrets of the MEGA aquarium" led by professional divers and biologists. However, today there are no more sharks in Lithuania - the managers of PLC "Mega" announce the loss of these exotic animals.
According to biologist and diver Tad Laurinavičius, head of maintenance at the Megas aquarium, three sharks have lived in the aquarium in recent years: two blacktip and one female whitetip shark.
"At the beginning of March, we lost one of the sharks, and recently we said goodbye to the other two. All of them died of old age," said T. Laurinavičius.
Biologist Saulius Karalius, head of the Aquarium and Marine Nature Department of the Lithuanian Maritime Museum, who helped the PLC "Mega" team to select the inhabitants of the aquarium and consulted on their maintenance issues, said that blacktip and whitetip sharks are close relatives and belong to the same group of gray sharks (lat. Carcharhinidae) for the family. They are common along the warm coasts of the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans, but climate change, illegal fishing and marine pollution are threatening their populations and significantly shortening the average lifespan of sharks. At the Megas aquarium, conditions were favorable for sharks.
"In order to breathe normally, blacktip sharks have to constantly move in the water, while whitetip sharks are not very mobile. During the day, whitetip sharks usually lie hidden in corals, caves or simply on the sand and actively swim after dark when they hunt for prey. Different lifestyles allowed both species of sharks to get along well with each other. In addition, the conditions created here were favorable for them and resembled normal natural conditions: the aquarium maintains an average water temperature of +25 degrees Celsius, salinity reaches 30-35 per thousand, water quality is ensured by an efficient computer system that constantly checks the main physical and chemical water parameters, which are adjusted if necessary . There was no shortage of food for the sharks either - they were regularly fed thawed hake and other ocean fish," said S. Karalius.
Sufficiently fed, they did not pose a threat to other inhabitants of the aquarium, and protected from predators, harmful human activities, systematically examined and treated by a team of veterinary specialists, the sharks in the "Mega" aquarium lived even longer than their relatives normally live in natural conditions.
"In the wild, a blacktip shark lives an average of 12 years, and a whitetip shark - 16 years. Sharks have lived in our aquarium since its opening in 2005," said T. Laurinavicius, head of aquarium maintenance.
The managers of PLC "Mega" promise that the "Mega" aquarium, included in the list of the highest aquariums in the world and named one of the largest marine aquariums in the Baltic States, will definitely not be without sharks - they are already discussing with biologists what kind of sharks and when they could be housed here again.
Although there are currently no more sharks in "Mega", free interactive educational-entertainment excursions "Secrets of the MEGA aquarium" are planned until the end of the school year for 1st-5th graders. for schoolchildren, will continue to be organized. As before, they are led by professional divers and biologists. On these tours, children explore the aquarium, learn about the main causes of shark attacks and how to avoid them, the difference between marine and freshwater aquariums and the fish that live in them, what conditions they live in and what they eat, watch how the fish are fed from the top of the aquarium, and even can themselves do it, play an interactive game, etc. Excursion participants are always willing to visit special rooms, to which any visitor of "Mega" is not allowed. Here, schoolchildren inspect divers' equipment, see how and where the so-called fish hospitals are set up, where sick fish or new fish brought to Lithuania live in quarantine conditions for several weeks.
The aquarium installed in "Mega" is marine. It holds more than a million glasses of water and has dissolved more than 10 tons of salt. The aquarium is 4 m wide, and its height is equivalent to a three-story building. The "Mega" aquarium is equipped for educational and entertainment purposes - to introduce visitors to the underwater world and its inhabitants in an attractive way, to encourage the desire to be interested in living nature and to protect it.
