Becky O’Brien, 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’Brien 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.
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’Brien remarked, referring to the gourmet restaurants in Las Vegas's bustling tourism hub.
