Transporting animals over long distances is tricky business. Aquarium staff must consider all requirements and potential hazards: permits, flight schedules, elapsed time, freight containers, oxygen supplies, and import regulations.
With more than 2,500 animals trekking from Australia to Baltimore in preparation for Animal Planet Australia: Wild Extremes, planners must be especially adaptive to the travails and hazards of 20-hour flight times, layovers, and ground transportation!
A Travel Log
For example, take the transport of archerfish, barramundi, salmon-tailed catfish, and sooty grunters from a fish farm in Queensland, Australia to Baltimore in late November 2003.
The Aquarium’s Biological Programs Department had staff waiting at the Los Angeles Airport to clear the shipment with the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, assess the condition of the fish, re-oxygenate their bags, and then quickly transfer them to a domestic flight to Baltimore.
The plan seemed simple enough. Reality went something like this:
- The flight from Brisbane, Australia to Los Angeles was more than an hour late.
- Delivery of the fish to the Los Angeles air cargo office was delayed.
- The fish were in good condition and their bags rapidly re-oxygenated and resealed.
- With only an hour left before the day’s final flight to Baltimore, the domestic flights cargo office informed our staff that it was too late to get the fish aboard.
- Undaunted, our staff used considerable charm to persuade the cargo crew to take the fish. They were loaded in the nick of time!
- The Aquarium received an e-mail from the Australian fish farm warning that other catfish in transit were “dodgy.”
- Aquarists met the midnight flight at BWI, collected the fish, and hurried back to the Aquarium, where acclimation tanks were ready and waiting.
- After a burned-out taillight earned the team an unexpected stop by a Maryland state trooper, the aquarists arrived and released the fish into their temporary homes.
- The dodgy catfish were fine, but the barramundi appeared to have seizures.
- The aquarists responded with heart attacks of their own (well, almost).
- The fish recovered quickly. So did Aquarium staff!
- By 4 a.m., the 48-hour transport was declared a success, and another workday began.
Looking Back
In retrospect, it was a superbly organized effort. The Aquarium’s well-trained, experienced staff pulled off a complex job without any serious problems, and the fish continue to thrive.
In fact, the catfish have grown several inches and now measure about a foot. Similarly, the barramundi are now 18 inches long, compared with their arrival as fingerlings.
If the plane from Brisbane had been another 30 minutes late, and that last flight to Baltimore missed, this story might have had a different ending.
The lessons? When working with live animals, be prepared for the unexpected. And always check your taillights!
