Card Sharks in Vegas? Try Real Sharks

The newest attraction to open on the Las Vegas Strip is another oxymoron in a town that flaunts its desert environment: a $40-million shark exhibit.

Shark Reef, near the arena at Mandalay Bay Resort, offers a self-guided tour featuring 75 species of sharks, rays, eels and other tropical fish, plus an assortment of reptiles. They are contained in a 2-million-gallon aquarium, which is designed to look like an ancient temple slowly sinking into the sea. At one point, in a tunnel passageway of clear acrylic plastic, the viewer feels submerged in the sea environment.

Among the more fascinating inhabitants of the aquarium are a pair of endangered sea turtles, five rare golden crocodiles from Southeast Asia and a 12-foot-long nurse shark. One isolated tank looks something like an ethereal lava lamp, filled with slowly rising and falling jellyfish.

“We want to present to people what they’d least expect to find in the desert,” said Glenn Schaeffer, president of Mandalay Resort Group.

Why would a casino resort develop an aquarium? “People are awake 13 hours a day and only gamble for four hours,” Schaeffer said. “And they’ve got money to spend.”

Shark Reef is managed by the Vancouver Aquarium Marine Science Centre. It is open 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. Admission is $12.95 for adults, $9.95 for children 12 and older.