Roundabout to steinhart aquarium - A Fascination for Fish: Adventures of an Underwater Pioneer - page 156

nitrogen waste in the form of ammonia, which is highly toxic to fishes.
So we withheld food from our sharks for three days, then loaded them
into the oxygenated transport tank on the truck and took o¤ for San
Diego. All went well, and the blacktips arrived at their new home in
good shape.
BACK TO CANTON ISLAND
A second trip to Canton Island was planned to collect more small black-
tips. This time I would go with Ray Keyes, the curator of fishes at Sea
World, and Bob Kiwala. Ray also wanted some of the little blacktip
reef sharks, and Bob needed to collect tropical sponges and tunicates
for Dr. John Faulkner of Scripps. These defenseless-looking inverte-
brates, which manufacture toxic chemicals to keep other organisms from
crowding them out, had recently become a hot item in the pharma-
cology industry's search for new antibiotics and possible cancer cures.
This time I was planning to use a di¤erent and less expensive method
of shipping my sharks back to San Francisco and Ray Keyes's sharks
to San Diego. Instead of large boxes, we would use four-foot-long Sty-
rofoam boxes made for shipping long-stemmed roses, fitted with the
polyethylene bags used by coroners for human bodies, which happened
to be the perfect size. With a few inches of water, each oxygen-filled
box would nicely hold two little blacktips snug in their body bags. These
smaller containers could then go in the cargo hold of a passenger plane.
Arriving at Canton, we looked up Tonga John and Blackie, and they
were willing—and in the case of Blackie, eager—to help us again. With
Blackie's expert help, the shark collecting was completed in a couple
of days.
The remainder of the time was spent diving on the steep drop-o¤
on the outside of the atoll. I'd brought my underwater camera, so I
spent some time taking pictures, and Bob still had to collect his sponges
and tunicates for Dr. Faulkner and needed help with that.
The outside of the reef was the hangout for the gray reef sharks ( Car-
charhinus amblyrhynchos ). These sharks, which can be territorial, are
known for the warning display they put on when their personal space
has been invaded. They arch their backs, lower their pectorals, and go