hurricane sandy

Amazingly, All That Sea Water Didn’t Kill the Aquarium’s Fish

The last time we heard from the New York Aquarium, its managers were considering evacuating their collection after Sandy knocked out the power and flooded open-topped tanks, which workers figured were a loss. But the New York Times reported on Wednesday that the section thought to have been hit the hardest, the basement exhibits at Sea Cliffs, didn’t lose a fish. Obviously, you say, fish live in water. But apparently these fish wouldn’t have fared well in the raw sea water that got into their tanks. Director Jon Dohlin told the Times, “I thought we lost everything.” But not one fish inside the aquarium died, not even in the swamped Sea Cliffs basement. “Mr. Dohlin speculated that even though the floodwaters had poured into the top of the tanks, the cold ocean water must have sat on top of the tank water, ‘striated,’ as it were.” Unfortunately, the aquarium did lose about 150 koi carp that had been living in freshwater holding pools outside. But all in all, its residents fared remarkably well.

All That Sea Water Didn’t Kill Aquarium’s Fish