All the fish die after being shifted to the aquarium on Sunday; SMC had procured the baby sharks from Malaysia via an agency.
In a massive setback to its ambitious aquarium project aimed at entertaining Surtis, all 12 sharks that Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC) had procured from Malaysia couldn’t survive the transfer to the giant aquarium in Surat on Sunday. Unfortunately, for the project the death happened four days before its inauguration on February 14, by chief minister Narendra Modi.
The 12 sharks had reached Surat on Sunday morning and were reportedly in a completely healthy condition. They were then placed in the 22x15 feet shark pool developed in the aquarium. By afternoon, the condition of sharks began to deteriorate and by late noon, they began to die one after the other. Within an hour, all the sharks died in the pool. Shocked SMC officials are now investigating the cause of shark deaths. They will also have to go ahead with inauguration without the shark attraction.
“The baby sharks were procured from Malaysia and were brought to Surat via Chennai. All of them were completely fit and were behaving normally. But from afternoon onwards, all 12 of them died within an hour of keeping them in the pool,” said JK Shah, additional city engineer. Shah, who heads the aquarium project, said that high transit shock can be one of the reasons for the deaths. Another reason he cited might be that the big fish couldn’t adjust to their new surroundings.
However, Surat-based NGOs claim that the tragedy could have been prevented if the fish were kept in open pool or a pond in Chennai for 4-5 days before being transferred to Surat. It would have protected them from the transit shock. “Sharks are very sensitive and in this case, longer travel time and transit shock can be the reason behind the deaths. The agency should have looked for options closer home than bringing the big fish all the way from Malaysia. Even if they were kept in Chennai for 4-5 days, not all of them would have died,” said Viral Prajapati, member of NGO Nature Club.
In a bid to add attraction to SMC’s Rs19-crore Jagdish Chandra Bose Aquarium at Pal in Adajan, the civic body hired Chennai-based Star Agency to provide 30 sharks in a phased manner for the aquarium. In the first phase 12 sharks were brought to Surat on Sunday. However, SMC has not incurred monetary loss at the deaths of the sharks, as the contract mentioned that the big fish will have to be alive for a certain period of time post transfer.
Terming it unfortunate, municipal commissioner MK Das said: “Shark pool is special attraction of aquarium and all arrangements for proper shifting of sharks were done well in advance.” However he considers longer travel time and change in atmospheric conditions may have created negative effect on the sharks. The agency has been asked to replace new sharks at the earliest possible.
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