Audobon Aquarium of the Americas in NO

[jilln]

Melissa Lee of the aquarium was just on CNN. She says many of the animals have survived but would not give a percentage or say how many died. When asked why they did not evacuate the animals before the storm, she actually said something to the effect of "sometimes moving them before is more stressful to the animals than letting them weather the storm." Wtf? More stressful than being in a building which could have washed away or being drowned to death, both of which could have happened?

Their own Web page says: Hurricane damage disabled much of our life support system, costing the Aquarium most of the animals in our aquatic collection. 

[Atlas Mugged]

1. I saw the evacuation of the penguins yesterday on CNN

As well as the Green Sea Turtle.

The preparation time for the evacuation of movable animals is the real problem, and one that can't really be addressed within the time frame of anticipating a hurricane to hit.

The true tragedy is the loss of all the fish, which are impossible to even consider relocating every time you think that a hurricane might strike. The biggest loss are the coral beds, since they take decades to develop to maturity.

I'm in awe of the staff for staying there and risking their lives to do what they could (as well as the staff at the zoo), but I'm upset that there wasn't a back up plan in anticipation of losing electricity for such a long period of time. I'm not going to criticize the staff for the lack of planning, since they did stay behind, and they were obviously quite grief stricken at the loss of so many creatures that they truly love and respect. Perhaps, when they rebuild, they'll get better funding for some seriously powerful generators.

[jilln]

2. I understand it's a huge undertaking...

but if they can't evacuate the animals in some reasonable time frame, maybe they should not have them.

[hugo_from_TN]

4. I'm curious

Since everybody in government gets blamed for a lack of planning why are you giving the Aquarium a free pass?

[ajacobson]

5. They did have a plan

and it worked for a while. Everything was adequate until their main generator failed, several days after the 'cane hit.

Had emergency response efforts arrived earlier, I think they could have got the equipment replaced, preventing the loss of the population. I lay this at the feet of the feds, along with many other tragedies, human and animal.

[RandiFan1290]

3. I was there 2 years ago

It was beautiful. The tacky part was the "Shell" sponsored tank with species from the Gulf swimming around an oil rig. I am not kidding.