A Sad day at the Georgia Aquarium

[michika]

This morning Norton, one of the whale sharks at the Georgia Aquarium passed away.

Whale Shark Dies at Georgia Aquarium

[christyf5]

Aww that sucks. I'm hoping they do MACNA there next year so I can go see that aquarium, its supposed to be quite spectacular.

[Delphinus]

Hmm that's the second or third whale shark in the last six-months-to-a-year timeframe. Very sad, .. I wonder if whale sharks are just a poor candidate for captivity. Or who knows .. maybe stuff just happens and they get sick, just like any other animal, and it's just luck of the draw.

[michika]

I was looking at planning a trip down there when I stumbled across the article.

They had a death in January from peritonesis I believe.

[Delphinus]

I have this vague recollection that the whale shark who passed in January wasn't their first whale shark loss. But I could be wrong.

At any rate, I don't think this should stop you (or anyone for that matter) from visiting this top-notch facility. I'm hoping to make it down there soon too.

[michika]

I'm thinking of holding off until they hold MACNA there, like Christy mentioned.

[Der_Iron_Chef]

Looks like they recently got two new whale sharks. I hope they have better luck. They look like amazing animals.

When was the aquarium opened? I lived in GA for five years, but left back in 2001....and I don't remember hearing anything about it when I was there!

[Delphinus]

It's very new. I think the grand opening was last year. It's the newest and the biggest public aquarium in the U.S. It's being run by one of the former directors of the Waikiki Aquarium. Methinks it has to be *really* good if you're gonna be able to entice someone like that off the Islands..

[justinl]

i believe in the beginning they had two whale sharks. ralph and norton. ralph died a few months back, norton very recently. thy still have four sharks left that were added between ralph and norton's deaths (RIP you big fishees).

check this out.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh...1#post10135601

it includes a letter written by Jeff Swanagan, President and Executive Director of GA (the guy you were talkin about tony?).

edit: apparently the remaining four sharks are doing just fine.

[Delphinus]

Originally Posted by justinl

Jeff Swanagan, President and Executive Director of GA (the guy you were talkin about tony?).

Errr, no. I was thinking of Bruce Carlson. I guess he's just a lowly VP. http://www.georgiaaquarium.org/newsr...s/carlson.aspx

I'm happy to hear the other whale sharks are doing OK. I guess it sucks to have such a high profile animal, your flagship animals, decline in health.

I would love to see these guys one day. I'm sort of thinking of going this fall if I can scrape the funds together. I don't need no steenken' MACNA to go (haven't been to one yet, not sure if I'm really missing anything). Although yeah it would be cool to combine the two into one trip of course.