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springbird |
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2007-04-01 04:11:00 |
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中国北京 |
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主题：［转载］喂食管杀死鲨鱼-美国乔治亚州水族馆鲸鲨死亡
内容：
Posted on Thu, Mar. 29, 2007
Food tube may have killed shark
Georgia Aquarium fish had been forcibly fed for several months
By The New York Times
ATLANTA — A young whale shark that sank to the bottom of its tank at the Georgia Aquarium and died this year had been forcibly fed for months, a practice that might have punctured its stomach and caused an infection that led to its death, scientists said Wednesday.
“Findings show that Ralph’s stomach appeared abnormal, because it was thin-walled and perforated,” Jeff Swanagan, the executive director of the aquarium, said in a news release. “This likely caused peritonitis which led to Ralph’s death.”
The whale shark was fed with a tube after it seemed to lose its appetite over several months last year, said Robert Hueter, director of the center for shark research at the Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota, Fla. Hueter said it was possible the shark’s stomach had been punctured by the feeding tube.
The results of the necropsy have increased scrutiny of the 16-month-old, $290 million facility here, which bills itself as the world’s largest aquarium and has flown four whale sharks, the world’s largest fish, from Taiwan to Atlanta to be its star attractions.
Only one other aquarium, in Okinawa, keeps whale sharks, which may live as long as 120 years in the wild.
http://www.thestate.com/166/story/21183.html
参考译文（翻译：springbird）
发布日期：2007年3月29日星期四
喂食管可能杀死了鲨鱼
乔治亚州水族馆鲨鱼被强制喂食数月
New York Times报道
亚特兰大－一些科学家星期三说到，一条年轻的鲸鲨死后沉在乔治亚州水族馆的池底，它之前被强制喂食数月，可能在一次喂食中被刺穿了胃部引起了感染，导致了它的死亡。
水族馆的执行理事Jeff Swanagan在新闻发布中说，“结果显示Ralph(拉尔夫)的胃部出现了反常，因为它的胃壁变薄并且有穿孔。这可能导致了腹膜炎并最终造成了拉尔夫的死亡。”
佛罗里达萨拉索塔的Mote海洋实验室的鲨鱼研究中心主任，Robert Hueter说，这条鲨鱼在几个月以前看起来没有食欲，于是被强制用一个管子喂食。Hueter还说，鲨鱼的胃部可能是被喂食管刺穿了。
尸检结果增加的对这个开业16个月，2亿9千万美元设施，号称自己是世界上最大的水族馆的审查，这里有四条从台湾到亚特兰大的鲸鲨，世界上最大的鱼类，是它的明星诱惑。
此外只有一家位于冲绳的水族馆在饲养可能在野外生存了120年的鲸鲨。
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springbird |
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2007-04-01 04:16:13 |
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中国北京 |
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跟贴：看了这条消息，我搜索了相关的新闻，才发现Ralph死于2007年1月11日。
相关的新闻如下：http://edition.cnn.com/2007/TECH/science/01/11/aquarium.death/
Aquarium looks for answers in whale shark death
POSTED: 0256 GMT (1056 HKT), January 13, 2007
ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Scientists worked Friday to determine what killed Ralph, one of the four giant whale sharks at the Georgia Aquarium.
The 22-foot-long fish stopped swimming Thursday afternoon and divers whisked it from the bottom of its football field-sized tank to an exam area. Teams worked to save him for about eight hours before he died at 9:30 p.m.
"When we found him sitting on the bottom we immediately knew that he was in trouble," said Jeff Swanagan, the aquarium's executive director. (Watch Ralph before he died and how the staff responded )
Swanagan said a necropsy, or animal autopsy, was under way to try to determine the cause of death. Aquarium employees are also monitoring the other animals.
He said whale sharks Norton, Alice and Trixie all seem to be swimming normally. (Watch how the aquarium will learn from Ralph )
"We're watching it very carefully, but there's nothing indicating any other problems in the exhibit or anywhere else in the aquarium and no problems with any of the water chemistries," he said.
Ralph was the second popular animal to die at the aquarium in a nine-day period.
On January 2, Gasper the beluga whale was euthanized. He had suffered from a string of chronic illness even before he came to the aquarium.
Swanagan said the deaths were unrelated and that the animals lived in separate tanks with different water supplies.
"To have two big charismatic animals [die] creates a linkage that's probably not there," he said. "I've been doing this since 1979 and I've had cases where I've had two days in a row of births and two days in a row of deaths. Nature just sometimes doesn't give you a schedule of tragedies that's convenient."
Ralph had a physical exam in November with about 50 people taking part -- including veterinarians, biologists, divers and photographers.
Swanagan said the staff was concerned about some unusual swimming behavior a couple of months ago, but that had improved. Ralph's appetite also had been on and off. (Full story)
"There was nothing we could see that would define that this animal was as sick as he turned out to be," he said. Swanagan said there was no indication that stress from the exam could have contributed to Ralph's death but said that was one of the things they would look into.
Saved from the dinner table
Ralph and Norton have been the biggest stars at the aquarium since it opened in November 2005. They were joined by females Alice and Trixie in June.
The aquarium got the whale sharks by negotiating with Taiwan, which catches the animals for food. It is the only aquarium outside of Asia to showcase whale sharks.
The World Conservation Union lists the whale shark as a vulnerable species. Heavy fishing of the whale shark in several areas of Asia is believed to be one reason for its population decline.
Scientists hope to breed the sharks, but Swanagan said that's years down the road.
"The animals are all pre-teenagers and it would be many years before they would be ready to breed," he said. "Our friends in Okinawa, Japan, have had three whale sharks for 10 years in an exhibit that's two-and-a-half times smaller than ours and their animals are not yet breeding."
Mysterious giants
Whale sharks are the world's largest fish and can grow up to 66 feet in length. They are gentle animals that feed on plankton and small fish that they filter into their wide, flat mouths.
Swanagan said the Georgia Aquarium has been working with whale shark researchers for four years, but there are still a lot of things that they don't know.
He said some leading marine scientists worked for years without seeing a whale shark in the wild.
"No one knows, comprehensively, the life cycle of these animals," he said.
Swanagan said he's glad that more than 4 million visitors got to see Ralph.
"People have such an aversion to sharks, so to have these sort of friendly sharks, like whale sharks be ambassadors to get people to want to learn more about sharks is a very important reason to have them," he said.
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springbird |
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2007-04-01 04:17:59 |
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中国北京 |
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跟贴：
Ralph undergoes a physical examination at the Georgia Aquarium in November.
去年11月，拉尔夫在乔治亚州水族馆接受身体检查。
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