Shadow and Kai are once again back home in their 400,000-gallon tank at the Texas State Aquarium.
Children exclaimed with glee as they watched Shadow and Kai play with pool toys in their home tank this weekend at the Texas State Aquarium. The two bottlenose dolphins were home again after four months at the aquarium’s nearby SeaLab.
The temporary trip to SeaLab was to protect the ocean mammals from construction dust kicked up by the aquarium’s expansion next to the Dolphin Bay and Dolphin Bay Underwater Room exhibits. Called The Caribbean, the new $50 million exhibit will almost double the size of the aquarium. It is expected to open in 2017.
During their four months off sight, Shadow and Kai kept up their daily drills and training, although they were no longer performing before a live audience. Now back in their own 400,000 gallons of water, the dolphins are preparing to be the stars of the show once again, once fully acclimated.
“They need some time to get reacquainted with the tank and their schedule,” one aquarium worker explained to families gathered on the concrete stadium seating to watch the dolphins play.
The dolphins will perform again sometime this summer, the aquarium said in a released statement. Until then, visitors can enjoy the dolphins and participate in unscheduled “trainer chats” to learn all about the lives of the aquarium’s two biggest stars.
Meanwhile, the aquarium has set up a recovery fund to help replace the almost 400 fish lost recently when the wrong chemical was used in two of the biggest tanks. The chemical was mislabled and killed most of the fish in the Flower Garden and Islands of Steel tanks, including a 25-year-old tiger shark named Hans. The shark was a favorite among aquarium employees.
"Our goal is to have everything up and running again by Memorial Day weekend," president Tom Schmid told Corpus Chrisiti Business News in a recent interview. "We sent out a list of what we need to our aquarium partners all over America. Fish are already coming in."
Although most of the fish will be donated, Texas State Aquarium will have to pay shipping costs, which can be extensive, especially for bigger fish. To help defray costs, aquarium fans can donate online at texasstateaquarium.org. /
