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unreal to be flying through space in this huge plane with boxes of live
sharks—as if we were in another world disconnected from the earth
below.
After a couple of hours the navigator checked with Los Angeles In-
ternational Airport tra‹c control and was told that they were heav-
ily fogged in, the airport was closed, and we were being diverted to
Las Vegas. My heart sank. What was I going to do in Las Vegas with
live sharks and no possibility of making seawater changes? The like-
lihood of finding another cargo plane to fly from Las Vegas to San
Francisco was somewhere between slim and nil. I expressed my con-
cern to the chief pilot, who fully understood my predicament. Not
to worry, he said.
Apparently the flight schedules of cargo planes are pretty loose, and
he called Pan Am's dispatcher, explained the situation, and asked if he
could divert to San Francisco instead. He was told it was clear there
and to go ahead. What a relief ! Having L.A. fogged in turned out to
be a blessing in disguise. Not only did the sharks and I end up right
where we needed to be, but we also bypassed the long layover in L.A.
plus the second flight north to San Francisco. It was an unexpected
happy ending to an already spectacular flight.
At Steinhart, the blacktip reef sharks did well and grew at a rapid
rate. After two years I became concerned that they would soon be too
large for their 6,500-gallon exhibit. Since Steinhart didn't have a larger
tank they could be moved to, we decided that it would be wise to find
a new home for them before they became too large for our transport
tank.
I called Sea World, knowing that they had two large heated shark
systems our sharks could go into. The smaller of the two would be per-
fect until the blacktips grew large enough to be safe from being eaten
by the eight-foot bull shark and ten-foot lemon shark in the main shark
exhibit. The Sea World sta¤ was more than happy to give them a home,
and we went ahead with plans for the move.
Prior to moving any fish over long distances, it's standard practice
to fast them for a few days. This gives them time to metabolize any
food they've eaten and to rid their system of wastes that may contam-
inate the relatively small amount of water used in shipping, especially
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