After browsing the Churaumi Plaza we found ourselves leaving the aquarium and heading outside. From here they have more aquatic tanks with animals to include manatees, sea turtles, and dolphins.

I felt the manatee tanks were pretty sad and boring. I hope they had more to their tanks then what were shown.

Regarding the dolphins, they have two types here the common bottlenose dolphin and one I never heard of called the False Killer Whale (according to Wikipedia). Dolphins are extremely intelligent. In fact, they had a dolphin brain on display at the aquarium and it looked like a human brain. Apparently the false killer whales adapt nicely to being in captivity but I am still not a fan of seeing them in captivity. Yeah, it is neat to see how smart they are and how acrobatic they can be, but I feel they would be much happier swimming in the ocean with their friends. But I guess you can say that for all animals both in aquariums and in zoos.

I do feel sorry for animals in captivity, I can’t help but think that obviously most animals would be happier in the wild. I know in the wild, whale sharks travel thousands of miles every year and yet the ones here swim in circles year after year. I can’t help but feel sorry for them but at the same time I do think it is important for us to research various species to better understand them to hopefully protect them. As long as they are cared for and fed, I hope they are happy.

I know that the Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium does a lot of scientific research to better understand all these amazing creatures.