Marine biodiversity and the epistemology of aquariums

​This contribution aims to explore the role of ex situ conservation institutions, and aquariums in particular, in shaping our ideas of biodiversity.

Ex situ conservation fulfils multiple relevant functions. It helps protect endangered species that may not survive in the wild. It also provides urban citizens with direct experience of organisms that are not part of people’s everyday lives, thus contributing to both scientific education and recreational activities. Although justifiable as a good compromise between the need to improve environmental literacy and to preserve species, ex situ conservation raises several ethical and epistemic issues. In fact, some scholars have compared these institutions to museums, based on the fact that they share the same enclosed structure and didactic goals.

This work addresses the representation of marine biodiversity in aquariums, paradigmatically exemplifying the constraints imposed by ex situ conservation. Aquariums display aesthetically stunning scenarios of marine life that nevertheless lack multiple elements, such as predatory and reproductive behaviours as they occur in the natural environment, or the immersive nature of a real experience in the water (replaced by bidimensionality), resulting in a simplification of ecological relationships. A lack of awareness concerning these limits risks promoting a static view of biodiversity and conservation practices, which should not be reduced to spatial delimitation. Moreover, aquariums may overrepresent visible species at the expense of microorganisms, or suggest a hierarchical representation of life, in which salient animals are seen as ‘protagonists’ and vegetable species are often reduced to a visual background.

If ex situ conservation well represents species diversity, it is questionable to what extent it really accounts for all the different aspects of natural diversity. Since the isolation of living beings depending on taxonomic and spatial criteria implies their abstraction from their natural habitats, and thus a reduction of their possible natural behaviours, how could we expand the notion of biodiversity - including the functional and relational aspects - without making it unavailable?

Discussing the epistemological structure and constraints of aquariums may help reflect on how to avoid ‘artified’ conceptions of nature and promote a dynamic notion of marine biodiversity.