Salmon Shark With Strange Parasites Rescued By Seaside Aquarium Zoo and Aquarium Visitor News

Salmon Shark With Strange Parasites Rescued By Seaside Aquarium

By Keith Chandler

Seaside, OR - It was something the crew at Seaside Aquarium had never seen before. A salmon shark washed up in the Cannon Beach area Wednesday, still alive – which alone was a bit odd. But this salmon shark was covered in a dense layer of parasites in an unusual way.

The Seaside Aquarium is part of the Marine Mammal Stranding Network for the north Oregon coast, responding to baby seals that have wandered up, molting seals, injured sea lions and the like. But they also remove corpses of creatures that spill onto the beach from the tide.

Aquarium manager Keith Chandler said the shark was still living when they found it about 10 a.m. Wednesday. An hour and a half later it was dead, but first Chandler and others tried walking the four-foot salmon shark around the tank in order to get oxygen into its gills.

Salmon shark bodies washing up on shore are a bit unusual, but one that’s still alive is a bit more rare. What was really unusual about this shark was the number of parasites covering it, and the fact staff could not identify the type of parasite.

“I have never seen this many on a shark,” Chandler said. “And I’ve never seen this kind of parasite either. We don’t know what it is. He wasn’t a healthy specimen by any means.”

They have begun seeking input from other marine experts around the northwest.

This sickly condition, Chandler said, could have had something to do with it washing on shore.

This was the fourth salmon shark found by the Seaside Aquarium in the last six weeks. They have been showing up in the fall and late summer months in recent years, with apparent increasing frequency.

“It used to be we’d see one every other year,” Chandler said. “But I think that it’s not so much that there are more out there now, but rather that people know who to call. The education about that has gotten better lately, with the media and so on.”

2007 was a wild year for salmon shark strandings, as over 20 bodies were found on the upper half of the Oregon coast last year. Chandler said it’s likely the salmon sharks are closer this time of year, following salmon or other food sources.
Seaside Aquarium is on the Promenade in Seaside, Oregon. www.seasideaquarium.com.

All photos taken by Tiffany Boothe of Seaside Aquarium

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Irresponsible Board of Management

Maybe , just maybe The Toronto Zoo Board Is In The Middle Of A Financial Crisis And There Is No Place To Go But To City Council like a wayward son go to Mom and Dad for more money...

Although it was made clear by Shelley Carroll (the City's Budget Chief) that the Toronto Zoo has to behave more financially responsible, perhaps the problem is that there is no place else to go. The $250 Million fund-raising plans are a pipe dream (especially after firing the Zoo Foundation), it is not possible to raise admission prices any longer (or face a significant drop in attendance) and the "junkets" (especially to China for the Giant Pandas) by members of the Zoo Board can not be cut significantly for any reason. In other words, there is no place to go but City Council. What a crock! The Toronto Zoo Board needs a reality check, as it has become clear that they do not understand the problems they are facing. Perhaps the thousands of free Zoo passes given to Councillors on the Zoo Board could be cut to zero, perhaps the Zoo Foundation could be re-instated, and perhaps a citizen's advisory committee could be formed to provide much-needed guidance to the existing members of the Board.

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Very cool and novel way to use Skype. Glad to see that people are thinking outside the box with its collaborative application. If it's not too late, you may want to submit this to Skype as a good use of their software for the Skype in business contest they're running.

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Another great way to celebrate World Oceans Day is to wear blue in honor of the ocean and tell people two things they likely don't know about the ocean and two ways they can take action. For more Information check out this website:

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