"ralph" the whale shark dies

[xgrafcorex]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6255761.stm

ralph was one of four whale sharks in captivity at an aquarium in Atlanta, GA.
i wonder what they do with a carcass that big?? it doesn't say what exactly caused the death, but it does say "the cause was not immediately known."

 

[Darwinsdad]

It is sad that he had to die so young in his relitive life span but I am sure dealing with a 22 ft. carcass is eaisier than the potential 50 ft. one he could have become.

 

[joseofsa]

sounds like te reporter thinks the roller coster had somthing to do with it. maybe the beluga ate suff that fell into the pool from the coster??? i like whale sharks... me sad...

 

[Talkenlate04]

sounds like te reporter thinks the roller coster had somthing to do with it. maybe the beluga ate suff that fell into the pool from the coster??? i like whale sharks... me sad...

Ok clearly you did not read the whole article....... or did not get what was being said. The reporter was reporting that the previous place the beluga whale was being kept was in Mexico in a display with a wood roller coaster around it. That was not what killed it or made it sick. And no it was not eating anything that fell from the roller coaster.

 

[Mushroom Spore]

sounds like te reporter thinks the roller coster had somthing to do with it. maybe the beluga ate suff that fell into the pool from the coster??

Besides the fact that large sealife like whales and sharks are EXTREMELY sensitive to things like radio waves and other electronics, they were living under a freaking roller coaster. Their entire water-filled enclosures were shaking like mad multiple times an hour every day of their lives, plus yes people probably threw trash and the coaster itself might have leaked oil or something. If they were human, we'd be calling that torture. It still is, especially with animals that intelligent.

Quoted from another forum:

"Gasper was one of two whales living in a tank UNDERNEATH A (edit) ROLLER COASTER that were basically rescued. It took six months of beurocratic red tape and negotiating to move he and the other whale to Georgia, and that may have been a little too long.

Gasper was on display for a very short time before they realized he wasn't right in the head. Large marine animals like that are very in tune to electromagnetic things and what not. Great White sharks, for example, die in captivity because cell phone signals make their brains melt.
...
What they don't tell you is he was kinda suicidal. They had him out of water for weeks on end because he refused to swim. They just had him on a platform, giving him massages and spraying him down with a hose. He wouldn't eat consistently, and was very aggressive for the periods he was with other whales.

I got to see him once. He still had scars from the lesions on his skin."

*

"I mean, think about living in water, and every five minutes it all vibrates because of the roller coaster. This happens for 14 hours a day.

For three years.

I think it'd have an affect."

*

"I mean, they don't melt as in brains coming out the shark's nose, because they're long dead before that can happen.

Basically, the great white's brain is wired to actually sense radio signals. It was designed this way so it'd know which way the poles are. Stay in captivity is basically non stop sensory overload."

*

"there is plenty of evidence out there showing that dolphins and whales have a drastically reduced lifespan in captivity. It's just too stressful for them and their glucocorticoid levels are constantly high.
It's not unheard of for aquariums to sweep a death under the carpet and replace a dead dolphin with "flipper" mark 2, 3, 4 etc... noones the wiser for it.
...
(edit)ing up the sharks "6th sense" (to use layman terms) is just one aditional cause of stress leading to the premature death of sharks in captivity.
Ultimatly, it's long term stress that kills these animals. Stress is a survival mechanism, but long term exposure will end up killing you for reasons which I won't go into here cause I don't fancy writing an essay.

Edit: BSc marine bio graduate

Edit edit: here's a long but easy to understand page on the effects of stress. Should give you an idea of what's happening to these animals. long story short, the brain starts to die (crude explanation)
http://www.fi.edu/brain/stress.htm"

*

Infodump.

 

[joseofsa]

believe me i know about stress on animals i have chameleons. i missed the part where it said "surrounded" that sucks.
talk u need to chillax. one summer a while ago i worked a coster at a theme park here and one of the jobs was to inspect the ground before the park opened and we found lots of stuff like sun glasses, wallets, purses, shoes, and cameras. are you saying that a roller coster in mexico is any different? were you there to make sure he did not eat these objects? plus spore brought up some insightful facts about the sheer amount of stress inflicted on this animal. so stress and mabye a few forign objects would equal death i would think. am i on the right track spore???

 

[Mushroom Spore]

so stress and mabye a few forign objects would equal death i would think. am i on the right track spore???

I'd say mostly the overwhelming stress levels, though I'm sure what was likely a nasty (possibly too small or even poorly filtered, who knows) environment didn't help his long-term health any.

It almost sounds like he had some form of PTSD or suicidal depression, given his behavior and this quote: "I mean, think about living in water, and every five minutes it all vibrates because of the roller coaster. This happens for 14 hours a day. For three years."

He could well have been psychotic after that much trauma. I mean, they had to keep him out of the water because he kept trying to let himself drown.

I have no idea how intelligent beluga whales are, but whales in general seem to be at least as intelligent as human children. Therefore...yeah, I vote he was kind of nuts after all that.

EDIT: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cetacean_intelligence#Self-awareness Looks like dolphins rank even higher than chimps in some areas--they even use tools. This guy wasn't a dolphin, but you know what I mean.

 

[joseofsa]

makes sence to me.
lol vote for being nuts that made me laugh for a bit.

 

[Tim Benzedrine]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6255761.stm


i wonder what they do with a carcass that big??

Contact Long John Silvers?

 

[Stylopidae]

Great White sharks, for example, die in captivity because cell phone signals make their brains melt.

I'd like to read the literature on this. I've never heard this before.