Tanner bank and mexico expo - A Fascination for Fish: Adventures of an Underwater Pioneer - page 127

with copies of underwater photographs and films taken on our expe-
ditions as well as preserved specimens for its scientific collections. And
one year I set up a refrigerated seawater system in the university's bi-
ology lab.
In 1971 we again applied for a permit. This time the Mexican gov-
ernment had a specific request: we were expected to participate in a
major fisheries exposition scheduled for the Christmas holidays. It was
to be held in the fairgrounds in Mexico City and would last five weeks.
After asking if they had anything in particular in mind, we were told
that, among other things, they wanted sea lions, harbor seals, and one
adult male elephant seal. They particularly insisted on the elephant seal
because it had been collected by Sea World under a previous permit
from Mexico's Isla Guadalupe, o¤ the west coast of Baja California. In
addition to the marine mammals, they wanted a touch pool and a trop-
ical aquarium full of Mexican fishes from the Sea of Cortez, together
with informational graphics in Spanish about the animals.
Tr y as we might, there was no budging them on these demands. Most
of what they wanted was certainly possible, but the very thought of
transporting a two-thousand-pound elephant seal from San Diego to
Mexico City and back just for a temporary exhibition was scary, to say
the least.
To add to our worries, the organizers then told us that no prepara-
tory work could be done at the fairgrounds until three weeks before
the expo was to open; a German industrial equipment exposition would
be there before us, and construction was impossible until it closed. Still,
they repeatedly assured us that it was no problem to get us whatever
we needed, that everything we asked for would be ready. We told them
that the elephant seal would need a very large pool of seawater and the
seals and sea lions a slightly smaller one.
Because excavating the fairgrounds was not permitted, both of these
pools would have to be built above ground, with raised viewing areas
around them for the people to see the animals. Again they calmly
told us that everything we asked for would be there. I said that the
tropical aquarium and all the graphic panels about the animals
would have to be inside a building to protect them from the sun.
“ No hay problema. ”