Shadow and Kai, the stars of Dolphin Day at the Texas State Aquarium, should be back in their home tanks by Memorial Day weekend.
Even the dolphins should be back by Memorial Day weekend, according to Texas State Aquarium President Tom Schmid. New stock are already coming in as the aquarium recovers from a devastating loss of marine life when a mislabeled pesticide was used in two of the facilities biggest tanks April 14. Around 390 fish were killed — 14 percent of the aquarium’s stock.
“We are well on the way to recovery,” Schmid said. “We have removed all the water from all systems and replaced it. We’ve rebuilt the biological filters in each one and most are back online.”
The Island of Steel and Flower Garden tanks — the two largest —will be the last ones to come back online. These two tanks were the only two affected by the pesticide mixup.
The aquarium’s two bottlenose dolphins — Shadow and Kai — were not affected by the pesticide as they were moved late last year to the SeaLab facility nearby while construction began on a new exhibit. The Caribbean experience will nearly double the size of the aquarium and should open in 2017.
The first $50,000 in individual donations made online at texasstateaquarium.org/recoveryfund will be matched by Orion Drilling, announced Orion CEO and founder Wayne Squires. The matching funds made the recovery fund possible, said Schmid.
“The fund will provide our community and our friends from all over the opportunity to help us rebuild our collection,” Schmid said.
The money will be used to pay for shipping costs of donated fish. The aquarium sent out a wish list of fish to aquarium partners all over the U.S. The list contained requests for several hundred fish, including 40 different species. Some 30 aquariums and zoos have already offered to help with resupplying efforts. The Sealife Center in Grapevine, Texas, sent in a shipment of lion fish just this week.
Small fish are shipped in triple-sealed plastic bags that contain half pure oxygen and half water. Bigger fish must be shipped in specially built, fiberglass containers with filtration systems. They can be sent on flatbed trucks or by air.
Due to the dolphin move and now the fish kill, the Aquarium has reduced admission pricing to about half what it usually is. That should be rectified by Memorial Day weekend. For current ticket prices, visit the site at texasstateaquarium.org/plan-your-visit/.
Visitors to the aquarium won’t see any signs posted explaining what has happened.
“We have decided to greet every single guest to explain to them what is going on,” Schmid told Corpus Christi Business News. “We felt it was more important to have a conversation with our guests rather than post a few signs.”
Aquarium members have been kept up-to-date with regular email newsletters.
