uShaka sharks travel to new home
Two juvenile ragged-tooth sharks have gone to the National Marine Aquarium in Plymouth, United Kingdom.
TWO of uShaka Sea World’s juvenile ragged-tooth shark who were born at uShaka Sea World have gone to a new home at the National Marine Aquarium in Plymouth, United Kingdom.
Storm is a two-and-a-half year old, 60kg female and Tony is an eight month old, 25kg male. These young juveniles are currently of a size where they can’t be accommodated in an uShaka Sea World exhibit. They are too small to be kept with the large predators, but large enough to reduce the populations of fish in the other exhibits.
Last Tuesday, Storm and Tony were loaded into temporary holding tanks, together with accompanying documents from the South African State Veterinarian, and transported to OR Tambo Airport on the first leg of their journey to the National Marine Aquarium.
A member of the British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquariums (BIAZA), the National Marine Aquarium is the United Kingdom’s largest, and is the first aquarium in the UK to be set up for education, conservation and research, sharing similar objectives to uShaka Sea World.
As both Storm and Tony were born in captivity to known parents, these two youngsters are valuable to science, and will provide information on their life histories as they grow. Although South Africa has a healthy population of ragged-tooth sharks (also known as sand tiger or grey nurse sharks), the species is considered to be vulnerable to over-exploitation due to their late maturity (between seven and 10 years dependent on gender) and particularly small litters of usually only two pups.
With this in mind, the sharing of these two animals with an accredited facility like the National Marine Aquarium in Plymouth enables uShaka Sea World to continue to monitor their development and gain further knowledge about the species. In addition, Storm and Tony will be able to continue to inspire and educate the many visitors to their new home about the importance of marine conservation.
The National Marine Aquarium in Plymouth have renamed Storm uShaka, and Tony will know be known as Mandela to keep their African link.
