Atlanta Aquarium Secret

[nix1191]

I'm a full time student at Georgia Tech and two of my friends are working for the construction company that is building the aquarium and rumor has it that one of the biggest attractions is going to be a Whale Shark. I think it might be one of only a handful in captivity.

Any one else heard this?

[flaunt]

Interesting... I've been wondering how many of the 5 million gallons will be saltwater and how many will be freshwater. Here's hoping it's mostly saltwater!

I was thinking about this huge water volume tonight and recalled that guy who had a 5,000 or 10,000g tank in his house and had to tear it down because of water damage due to evaporation... Will the evaporation from 5,000,000g of water affect the local climate?? I'll bet they'll have some condensers of some sort to collect some of the evaporated water... Or maybe not?

[jesspaul]

Will the evaporation from 5,000,000g of water affect the local climate

Depends on what you mean by local. inside the building could be a 'rainforest' if the AC is done right. I don't know about reusing the water recovered by the AC, its going to be dirty from airborne particles and some stuf people exhale. It would be cool to have a structure over the tank that is cooled to allow the water to condense and rain back on a schedule.

[Caesar Gdi]

you could just run that water thru a RO and it should be ok

[flaunt]

About the whale shark...
http://www.marinebio.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=290

Apparently it is true. Why would they keep one of these animals if they know pretty well it's just going to wither away and die? Makes me think their primary interest is generating tourism revenue.

[flaunt]

maybe they decided not to do it after all... the following quote came from the organization in Belize that was supposed to allow/help them get a whale shark: http://www.destinationsbelize.com/news.htm

27 January 2004: Whale Shark meeting cancelled!!!!!! According to Friends of Nature, The Georgia Aquarium has withdrawn its proposal. However, no details other than these two facts have been provided. It is not known whether the Belize Fisheries Department is still involved in any manner with this proposal, nor whether The Georgia Aquarium will go elsewhere for a whale shark exhibit. Because we have been unable to obtain any email addresses for The Georgia Aquarium staff, persons interested in making their views known about exhibition of whale sharks at The Atlanta Aquarium should contact Cynthia Tucker, Editorial Page Editor, The Atlanta Constitution, phone, 404-526-5432, email - cynthia@ajc.com.