Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell promised Seattleites that he would fix the city's houseless crisis, fix our crumbling infrastructure, and address the climate crises. Instead, he may soon approve a city budget that dedicates $20 million dollars of taxpayer money to funding an unnecessary, excessive, and unwanted new shark tank at the Seattle Aquarium.  

The Seattle Aquarium's new tropical shark tank is part of the larger waterfront overhaul congesting downtown. In addition to using taxpayer money, the aquarium will likely capture sharks and possibly sting rays from the South Pacific if they can’t find ones from other facilities which have bred them. Sharks and sting rays are complex and intelligent beings who will die young in a tiny tank.

Sharks and stingrays will be possibly “sourced” (i.e. forcibly captured and removed) from the waters of the South Pacific, where they may be endangered. Not only does this capture decimate wild shark populations and potentially contribute to the illegal wildlife trade (ironically the Association of Zoos and Aquariums has a staunch anti-wildlife trafficking initiative), it also ruins the ecological balance of our oceans, further contributing to climate change, habitat destruction, and species extinction. Seattle seems to be priming itself for the spotlight a la Blackfish 2.0 but with sharks.

Many sharks and stingrays either captured or bred in captivity die young because their lives are so profoundly altered from what would have been their natural habitat. For example, the bowmouth guitarfish gathers enough speed in between the ocean floor and the water’s surface that they can jump up into the air at astounding heights, likely to rid themselves of bacteria. These natural behaviors that require lots of swimming room are not possible to partake in when inside of a manufactured environment.

From an energy and water use standpoint, the shark tank is an insult to our city’s climate change goals. The tank requires daily pumping of water from Elliott Bay which must then be heated and filtered, only to then be re-cooled and filtered before it may be returned to the Bay.

The Seattle Aquarium is strategically positioned in this high tech region to lead and be the model for other cities. Using cutting-edge, technological experiences it could achieve educational and entertainment goals without a single animal suffering and dying young. We are a leader in VR technology; why can’t we play to our strengths here in Seattle, instead of building an irrelevant tropical tank?

Financially, this project had already defeated itself; it was us, the taxpayers, that bailed them out. The aquarium has clearly mismanaged its project budget which started at $113 million and now it’s at $160 million. Instead of funding an ever more expensive shark tank, Seattleites want to loan out our money to fund efficient and economically-just projects for our houseless person crisis; open drug usage on public streets and in public parks; crumbling transportation infrastructure; and lack of green spaces in low income communities, putting Seattle at odds with its new Environmental Justice Initiative.

Unfortunately, the Seattle Aquarium apparently has more hold over City Council than do the tax-paying citizens. Councilmembers Pedersen and Sawant voted against giving $20 million in REET funds to Seattle Aquarium. However, the rest of the Council, including Seattle Aquarium Board Member and City Councilmember Lewis, should reassess their priorities for the REET fund and NOT use tax dollars to fund animal cruelty.  

Now that the $20 million has been approved by City Council, only Mayor Bruce Harrell can strike this spending from the annual budget. This shark tank project is antithetical to his Seattle Climate Action Plan and Green New Deal, as well as his campaign promise to solve the houseless crisis. Write to Mayor Harrell and tell him that we don't want to fund animal cruelty with our tax dollars!

Write to the Seattle Aquarium requesting that if they must take our money, that they instead use our funds to build a non-live, technologically cutting edge, and 100 percent HUMANE Ocean Pavilion. Ask that the aquarium sensibly follow the growing trend of using non-live educational exhibits at aquariums and zoos. People don't want cruelty! People don't want to see stressed animals imprisoned inside of tanks!