Photo courtesy of Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom Protecting the Wild
Frequent visitors to the Georgia Aquarium might recognize some familiar sights in the episode of “Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom Protecting the Wild” airing Saturday, February 15. In it, Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant goes to the aquarium to get up close and personal with whale sharks named Yushan and Taroko, highlighting how important conserving them is to the entire oceanic ecosystem.
Wynn-Grant is a wildlife ecologist who co-hosts the show with Peter Gros. She received a bachelor of science in environmental studies from Emory University, and it was a homecoming of sorts for her to film part of the episode at the aquarium. “Two [whale sharks] doesn’t sound like a lot, but considering their size, it’s an incredible feat of engineering that the aquarium can house them,” she says.
Whale sharks have been around for thousands of years and are the largest shark species and largest species of fish. Growing between 20 feet and 60 feet in length and weighing an average of 15 tons, they are an essential part of the ocean’s ecosystem.
Photo courtesy of Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom Protecting the Wild
While they might look like predators, they are gentle giants. “Their mouths are so big a human being can fit inside, but they eat plankton. They provide an incredibly important service to the ocean by keeping organisms balanced by filtering them through their [bodies]. They create clean, filtered water,” she says.
The global population of whale sharks has declined by more than 50 percent in the past 75 years due to tourism, pollution, and climate change. They have been on the endangered-species list since 2016.
While it’s a privilege for the 3 million people who visit the aquarium annually to see the whale sharks, it’s also vitally important that the species is studied at the aquarium, a fact the show highlights. “Whale sharks are very difficult to study in the wild,” Wynn-Grant says. “Having whale sharks under human care allows scientists to study their biology carefully and up close. We can extract that knowledge to study them in the wild.”
“Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom” was first broadcast in 1963 and has over 4,000 hours of programming. Wynn-Grant has filmed about 50 episodes, but this episode is the only one that left her in tears. “My experience swimming with the whale sharks at Georgia Aquarium was so profound,” she says. “I’ve gotten my hands on wolves, bears, and elephants … but this experience made me break down and cry. It was magical to see such an ancient, huge, and gentle creature up close.”
There are two 30-minute programs available at the Georgia Aquarium to experience whale sharks firsthand: Journey with Gentle Giants Swim and Journey with Gentle Giants Dive (SCUBA certificate required).
