Shark Reef at Mandalay Bay

About Shark Reef at Mandalay Bay

Shark Reef Aquarium is a public aquarium at 3950 Las Vegas Blvd. South, on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada, owned and operated by the Mandalay Bay resort. The attraction opened on June 20, 2000, and is accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, a status it earned in 2003. The facility covers 105,000 square feet and was developed in consultation with the Vancouver Aquarium at a construction cost of $40 million.

Its centerpiece is a main tank holding 1,300,000 US gallons, described as one of the largest aquarium tanks in North America and the largest on the Las Vegas Strip. The aquarium displays numerous species of sharks, rays, fish, reptiles, and marine invertebrates, and its layout includes a walk-through shark tunnel and a viewing area built to resemble the interior of a sunken ship. As of 2017, the facility employed about 80 workers, including 35 aquarists, and drew an average of roughly 900,000 visitors a year.

History

Shark Reef opened to the public on June 20, 2000, after being built with guidance from the Vancouver Aquarium. It reached its one millionth visitor in May 2001, and by that point had generated $10 million in revenue. The Association of Zoos and Aquariums accredited the facility in 2003. Over the years the aquarium's collection and programming steadily expanded: by 2007 it held 15 types of sharks, and by 2015 that had grown to 16 shark species represented by roughly 100 individual animals, spread across 14 exhibits. In 2020, Shark Reef opened a 36-seat virtual reality theater showing short films about aquatic life, a project it had announced earlier that year.

Exhibits and habitats

The aquarium is designed to resemble a sinking ancient temple, and its largest feature is the 1,300,000-gallon shipwreck tank, touted at the time of an early description as the third largest of its kind in North America. That tank is home to several endangered and threatened marine species, including green sea turtles, Galapagos sharks, blacktip reef sharks, sand tiger sharks, and green sawfish. When Shark Reef opened, it included the only indoor shark exhibit on the U.S. West Coast, featuring ten shark species at the time.

Other animals that have been part of the collection include small stingrays, horseshoe crabs, moon jellyfish, and water monitors. In 2008, Shark Reef received a Komodo dragon from the Miami Zoo, with additional Komodo dragons introduced in 2013. By that same period the aquarium had also introduced a diving program that lets guests swim with the sharks, along with a separate guest feeding program launched in 2013. In 2015, the aquarium added two scalloped hammerhead sharks, making it one of only three aquariums in the United States to feature the species at the time, and later that year it opened an additional exhibit featuring aquatic animals preserved through plastination.

Two notable long-term exhibits focus on individual species. One holds Devils Hole pupfish: in May 2006, two adult males were moved to Shark Reef from Devils Hole itself, while two adult females were relocated from a refuge at Hoover Dam, in an effort to help sustain the population. As of mid-2020, these pupfish could still be found in a small exhibit near the start of the aquarium, and Shark Reef also maintains a breeding program for the species, with more than 200 individuals held at a sister facility.

Animal highlights

As of 2005, Shark Reef held more than 2,000 aquatic animals and reptiles, cared for at that time by 65 total employees, including one staff member dedicated to preparing food; the facility was spending about $150,000 a year on food, equivalent to roughly 500 pounds per week. Sharks in the main tank generally do not hunt the aquarium's other fish because they are kept well fed, with large overhead lights used to signal feeding time. No current published species list or overall animal count was available for this page, so the figures here reflect the most recent documented counts rather than the exhibit as it stands today; visitors wanting an up-to-date species list should check the aquarium's website directly.

One especially documented animal was a great hammerhead shark exhibited starting in 2003. Shark Reef was the first closed-system aquarium in North America to display the species. The shark, a juvenile female under four feet long when she was accidentally caught off the coast of Florida, was flown to Mandalay Bay in August 2001 on a 16-hour flight in a transport tank built specifically for her. She spent two and a half years in a private quarantine tank before being judged large enough to avoid being preyed upon by the aquarium's other sharks, and was introduced into the main 1,300,000-gallon tank for public exhibition on November 3, 2003, at six feet long. She died suddenly on December 16, 2004; a necropsy attributed her death to an intestinal infection, and she measured 6.5 feet and weighed 95 pounds at the time.

Conservation and programs

Shark Reef staff take part in the "Adopt-a-Cove" program, which supports clean-up efforts at nearby Lake Mead. The aquarium's role in the Devils Hole pupfish recovery effort, described above, is one of its more significant conservation contributions: it has held rescued individuals on site since 2006 and supports a breeding population of more than 200 fish at a sister site.

Planning your visit

Current operating hours, ticket prices, and parking information for Shark Reef at Mandalay Bay were not available for this page. The aquarium is located at 3950 Las Vegas Blvd. South, inside the Mandalay Bay resort on the Las Vegas Strip, which typically means visitors can expect resort parking and Strip-adjacent accessibility, though those specifics could not be confirmed here. Given the venue's location inside a large casino resort, visitors should check the official Shark Reef website for current hours, admission pricing, and any accessibility services before planning a visit.