Aquarium: Early Results Inconclusive In Whale Shark Death

June 15, 2007

Release from: Doug Gross
Associated Press

Atlanta – Early results from a necropsy performed on the whale shark that died at the Georgia Aquarium this week produced no conclusive findings on the animal's cause of death, aquarium officials said late Thursday.

Norton on Wednesday became the second whale shark – the world's largest fish – to die at the aquarium since January.

In January, Ralph, a whale shark who along with Norton was one of the aquarium's first stars when it opened in 2005, died from peritonitis, an infection in his abdomen.

Aquarium officials said Norton, like Ralph, had stopped eating in recent months and swam erratically. Early Wednesday, he settled to the bottom of the aquarium's centerpiece 6 million-gallon Ocean Voyager tank.

He was euthanized after attempts to restore his normal functions failed, aquarium officials said.

Norton weighed 3,029 pounds and measured 21 feet, 5 inches long.

According to the aquarium, the necropsy showed that Norton's stomach was normal. Ralph's had been abnormally thin and perforated – possibly from a feeding tube used to feed him when he stopped eating.

The aquarium has said a chemical used in 2006 to clean the sharks' tank may have contributed to Ralph's loss of appetite, but that it's too early to say whether Norton's was caused the same way.

The routine since has been changed.

Alice and Trixie, whale sharks that arrived at the aquarium last year, were in the tank only a short time while the treatment was being used. Taroko and Yushan, a pair that arrived from Taiwan two weeks ago, never were exposed to it.

None of the four have shown any signs of decreased appetite, aquarium spokesman Dave Santucci said.

Santucci said it would have been a surprise if the early necropsy results had provided much of a clue in Norton's death. Full results are expected to take several months.

"You literally have to wait for science and nature to take its course," Santucci said.

Aquarium officials say scientists know relatively little about whale sharks, with new populations of them being discovered as recently as the past few years.

Jeff Swanagan, president and executive director of the aquarium, that while the deaths are sad, they will dramatically increase the scientific communities knowledge about the species.

"Everything we learn is a new discovery and we are sharing this information with shark researchers and scientists around the world," he said.

The Georgia Aquarium, the world's largest, is the only facility outside Asia to display the huge fish.