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Becky O\u2019Brien, a lead aquarist, dangles herring into a tank teeming with over a dozen sharks, and within seconds, a zebra shark snatches the fish from her tongs. While Ms O\u2019Brien always knew she wanted to work with marine life, she never imagined she would become a “shark dietitian” at a 1.3 million-gallon tank within a Las Vegas casino.<\/p>\n
Her team at the Shark Reef Aquarium, located at the Mandalay Bay Resort, cares for over 3,400 animals, feeding 15 species of sharks three times a week. “They eat, I would say, better than the tourists on the Strip,” Ms O\u2019Brien remarked, referring to the gourmet restaurants in Las Vegas’s bustling tourism hub. <\/p>\n
The aquarium itself is a significant draw, having attracted more than 21 million visitors to the resort and casino since its opening in 2000, according to Mandalay Bay.<\/p>\n
Explaining the dietary needs, Samantha Leigh, a professor at California State University, Dominguez Hills, who specialises in marine animal nutritional physiology, noted that sharks require diets rich in proteins and lipids to maintain their fatty livers, which are crucial for buoyancy control in the water. In the wild, sharks consume a diverse array of prey, from microscopic zooplankton to seals and even other sharks. In captivity, however, many are sustained on restaurant-quality seafood.<\/p>\n
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Aquarist Robert LeSage feeds a shark in the Shark Reef Aquarium at the Mandalay Bay hotel-casino in Las Vegas, Wednesday, March 11, 2026. (AP Photo\/John Locher) (Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)<\/p>\n
The sharks at Mandalay Bay are fed a mix of mackerel, herring, blue runner and sardines in an effort to give them a varied diet like they\u2019d have in the wild, O\u2019Brien said. Some of the fish are wild-caught, while others come from sustainable fisheries, she said. <\/p>\n
In one week the aquarium goes through over 300 pounds (136 kilograms) of fish, O\u2019Brien said.<\/p>\n
The fish are stuffed with vitamins, and they need to be hidden in the food to ensure the animals won\u2019t spit them out \u2014 the staff\u2019s version of giving a dog its medicine covered in peanut butter, O\u2019Brien said.<\/p>\n
Also like dogs, the sharks are trained to be rewarded with food for specific behaviors. The zebra sharks touch a target in order to receive food, and animals learn to go to specific areas of the tank for their meals.<\/p>\n
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Aquarist Lukas Seoane feeds a shark in the Shark Reef Aquarium at the Mandalay Bay hotel-casino in Las Vegas, Wednesday, March 11, 2026. (AP Photo\/John Locher) (Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)<\/p>\n
Lunchtime provides a chance for the staff to examine the animals. They can tell a lot about the sharks\u2019 conditions based on how they\u2019re eating. If they turn down food, they may have an illness, or they may be interested in mating, O\u2019Brien said.<\/p>\n
Sharks are ravenous before breeding season, but many of the male sharks will eat little during the season, which runs from March to June.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce you get to work with these guys on a daily basis, you do learn little nuances of how each one feeds a little bit differently,\u201d O\u2019Brien said. \u201cEach species is a little bit different.\u201d<\/p>\n
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