scubadoo
Active Member
"Midas" touch: Giant sea turtle's homecoming boosts morale at aquarium
01:31 PM CDT on Thursday, October 13, 2005
Associated Press
The Audubon Aquarium of the Americas lost the majority of its animals during Hurricane Katrina, but one of its evacuated survivors came back today.
King Midas, a 300-pound sea turtle, returned to his home in the Gulf of Mexico exhibit with a splash.
Midas was among a handful of creatures left alive after the power that sustains the aquarium's elaborate life-support systems failed. Generators kept some mechanisms working, but they soon ran out of fuel and people to power them when staff had to be evacuated after conditions on Canal Street became unsafe.
Aquarium spokeswoman Melissa Lee says the aquarium lost about 10,000, the majority of its collection.
But Midas, the 19-member penguin colony, two sea otters, an anaconda, the aquarium's bird collection, the tarpon in the Gulf of Mexico exhibit, a few stingrays and a few hundred freshwater fish made it through the storm.
Lee says the rest of the survivors will be brought back once it's safe.
01:31 PM CDT on Thursday, October 13, 2005
Associated Press
The Audubon Aquarium of the Americas lost the majority of its animals during Hurricane Katrina, but one of its evacuated survivors came back today.
King Midas, a 300-pound sea turtle, returned to his home in the Gulf of Mexico exhibit with a splash.
Midas was among a handful of creatures left alive after the power that sustains the aquarium's elaborate life-support systems failed. Generators kept some mechanisms working, but they soon ran out of fuel and people to power them when staff had to be evacuated after conditions on Canal Street became unsafe.
Aquarium spokeswoman Melissa Lee says the aquarium lost about 10,000, the majority of its collection.
But Midas, the 19-member penguin colony, two sea otters, an anaconda, the aquarium's bird collection, the tarpon in the Gulf of Mexico exhibit, a few stingrays and a few hundred freshwater fish made it through the storm.
Lee says the rest of the survivors will be brought back once it's safe.
