Sad News from the Calgary Zoo

[justinl]

Man that seriously sucks.

I doubt it was trace amounts of hand cream or something like that. I would imagine that the system is pretty big and if it was something foreign and added deliberately, it would have to be a fairly significant amount to cause that kind of effect. That said, I know it isnt hard to sabotage a public aquarium. Security isn't generally a main focus. and to compound the problem, think about how many people visit the place every day. trying to figure out who did it, if that were the case, would be near impossible unless they have video surveillance over the tank (hopefully they do).

[Jeff_]

This is quite sad indeed. It will be interesting however to find out what could cause such a catastrophic event, there is a possibility that it was something from someone hands but i really have no idea what could possibly even deal such damage. Im leaning towards deliberate sabotage too but what was used is really the question.

[Der_Iron_Chef]

I think that someone's hands would need to be covered in weapons-grade plutonium to cause such a severe reaction. No, if I can put my hands into my tank on accident after applying hand cream (oops!...only once...or twice....), I think the huge water volume of the stingray tank could withstand it.

It could even be something like...the grass outside the building was sprayed with fertilizer or weed killer. Who knows, right?

Either way, it's a great shame. I loved seeing the little beauties glide gracefully through the water, and they surely didn't deserve this.

[michika]

FYI the hand cream reference was just an example...I'm not saying hand cream could do it, I'm just saying that its very plausible that it could have been something that got into the tank, and isn't something they can or do routinely test for.