I got an e-mail response this morning from the director of husbandry at for the Ripley's company. I had cross-posted my origianl message that I posted here to the scubadiving.com message board to see if I was would get similiar responses, just kinda wanted to make sure that it just wasn't me that saw the 'stick carrying safety divers' as odd.
Well someone from that board forwarded my message to the aquarium.
Here is what is said:
Dear Ms. "Wendylou":
Thank you for your message on the Rodale's SCUBA Diving Diver to Diver
Message Board
(<
http://www.scubadiving.com/talk/read.php?f=1&i=684813&t=684813>) which was
forwarded to us by a third party.
Although we appreciate any and all feedback about our two aquariums, and we
take all visitor comments under consideration, in this case I believe that
perhaps some of your observations may have been misinterpreted.
First, let me state that both Ripley's Aquariums are absolutely dedicated to
educating our guests and the general public about the marine environment and
how to protect and conserve it. Both of our aquariums are institutional
members in good standing of the American Zoo and Aquarium Association (AZA)
and both aquariums have successfully completed the rigorous application and
site inspection process and have been granted Accreditation by the AZA. As
members of AZA we abide by the highest ethical standards in the profession.
Both aquariums are also members of The Ocean Project and several other
national and international marine conservation programs. In fact, our
aquarium in Gatlinburg is intimately involved with or coordinates most of
the local conservation programs in the Smoky Mountain and Pigeon River area.
Both Ripley’s Aquariums are state-of-the-art facilities employing the most
technologically advanced life support systems in the aquarium industry. The
senior husbandry staff of both facilities have collectively many decades of
experience at other aquariums including Monterey Bay Aquarium, Aquarium of
the Americas, North Carolina Aquariums, Virginia Marine Science Museum, Sea
World of Florida, Tennessee Aquarium, and Florida Aquarium as well as
extensive academic and research training.
Regarding your specific comments, I will attempt to address them in order,
within the text of the actual message below. My comments will be in CAPS to
distinguish them from the original message (no e-mail shouting or disrespect
intended).
This is the actual posted message that we received (and verified on the
Rodale's message board):
This weekend I found myself in Gatlinburg, TN. Just kinda happened. While I
was there, looking for something to do, I went to the Ripley's Aquarium in
the Smokies.
<
http://www.ripleysaquariumofthesmokies.com/>
I will never go to this place again, and I'm curious as to you guy's
opinions of what I saw there. They have a shark tank there with one of those
tubes that folks walk thru so they can see the fish and sharks. While I was
there they had 3 divers in the tank. One diver was cleaning the walkway tube
from insdie the tank and the other 2 divers were the 'safety divers'. (THIS
IS STANDARD PRACTICE AT MOST AQUARIUMS THAT DISPLAY LARGE SHARKS, ESPECIALLY
SAND TIGER SHARKS. LARGE AQUARIUMS REQUIRE DIVERS TO ENTER THE TANK FOR
MAINTENANCE AND CLEANING AND WE ACCOMPLISH THIS BY HAVING SAFETY DIVERS TO
PROTECT THE CLEANERS WHOSE ATTENTION IS OTHERWISE FOCUSED ON THE CLEANING.
IT IS STANDARD TO HAVE TWO SAFETY DIVERS WITH ONE OR TWO CLEANING DIVERS TO
PROTECT EACH SIDE OF THE CLEANER). By safety divers i mean that they carried
big 3 foot long poles that they used to harrass the sharks with. Well I saw
it as harrassing. I asked a guy that worked there and he said they were
keeping the sharks away from the diver that was cleaning. Everytime a shark
(they were mostly sand tigers) would come near a diver (at least 3 -4 feet
away) the diver would take the stick and shove it in the sharks face near
his eye and nose area and 'guided' the shark away. (THIS, TOO, IS STANDARD
PRACTICE AT MOST IF NOT ALL AQUARIUMS DISPLAYING LARGE SHARKS. THE SAFETY
POLES ARE MADE FROM ONE INCH DIAMETER PVC PIPE AND ARE LESS THAN THREE FEET
IN LENGTH AND ARE CAPPED AT THE END WITH NO SHARP EDGES. THE SAFETY POLES
ARE ALSO WRAPPED IN CONTRASTING COLORED TAPE IN A "CANDY CANE" PATTERN TO
MAKE THEM EVEN MORE VISIBLE TO THE SHARKS. IT IS THE PROFESSIONALLY ACCEPTED
INDUSTRY STANDARD PRACTICE TO USE THIS SAFETY TECHNIQUE WHEN DIVING WITH
LARGE SHARKS, AND FOR THE SAFETY DIVERS TO "INTERCEPT" THE SHARK EARLY IN
ITS GLIDE PATH TO PREVENT THE SHARKS FROM GETTING TOO CLOSE TO THE CLEANER
DIVERS AS THESE SHARKS NEED TIME AND ADEQUATE SPACE TO EXECUTE A TURN. IN
MOST CASES, THE SHARKS DO NOT EVEN NEED TO BE CONTACTED WITH THE SAFETY
POLE, RATHER IT IS PRIMARILY A VISUAL DETERRENT. THUS, WE OFTEN "WAVE" THE
POLES IN FRONT OF THE SHARK WELL BEFORE THEIR GLIDE PATH TAKES THEM INTO THE
PATH OF A CLEANER. IF CONTACT NEEDS TO BE MADE IT IS A MILD TOUCH NEAR THE
SENSITIVE AREA OF THE HEAD WHERE THE AMPULLI OF LORENZINI ARE MORE HIGHLY
CONCENTRATED). The worker there could not answer me when I asked how many
shark vs diver incidents hey had had to start such a rule. (THERE HAVE BEEN
ZERO INCIDENTS BECAUSE OF THIS INDUSTRY STANDARD PRACTICE). He tried to b.s.
me with something like, well the sharks know its their tank and they don't
like the divers in there. Well, I would think that the sharks would get used
to the divers in the tank, since they are in there several times a day.
(SHARKS ARE QUITE PRIMITIVE AND DO NOT NECESSARILY "GET USED TO" DIVERS,
ESPECIALLY WITH THOUSANDS OF PREY ITEMS IN THE TANK WITH THEM AT ALL TIMES).
But the whole 'to protect the divers' story fell thru when I saw the stick
toting diver no where near the diver cleaning, doing the same thing,
harrassing the sand tigers, especially when tourist would gather around the
tank to watch. (BECAUSE OF THE COMPLEX TANK SHAPE AND THEMING, IT IS OFTEN
NECESSARY TO TURN ANIMALS EARLY BEFORE THEY REACH A TIGHT CORNER WHERE A
CLEANER IS LOCATED). It was all show! (ABSOLUTELY NOT TRUE). I don't agree
with it and I didn't like it. I left. I don't support stuff like that. I've
seen divers in shark tanks before (ie..The Living Seas at EPCOT) and I have
never seen divers carry sticks to ward off the sharks. (DISNEY'S EPCOT
LIVING SEAS DOES NOT DISPLAY SAND TIGER SHARKS WHICH REQUIRE THIS TECHNIQUE.
MOST OTHER AQUARIUMS WHICH DISPLAY SAND TIGER SHARKS OR OTHER LARGE AND
POTENTIALLY DANGEROUS SHARKS ALSO USE THIS TECHNIQUE WITH DIVERS). Oh and
then to top it off, ok, first I know its not real coral in the tank, but I
saw a diver just sitting on top of the coral. Now alot of the tourist aren't
going to figure it out that the coral isn't real, but I thought it set a
very bad example. You should set a good example, whether the coral is real
or not. (YOU ARE CORRECT THAT THE THEMING IN THIS EXHIBIT IS ARTIFICIAL AND
MADE OF CONCRETE OR PLASTIC, AS IS THE GIANT SHIP HULL, SHIP'S WINCH, ANCHOR
CHAIN, BOX CRATES, 55 GALLON DRUM BARRELS, ETC. IT IS SOMETIMES UNAVOIDABLE
IN THE EXHIBIT TO NOT CONTACT OR STAND NEAR OR ON THESE ARTIFACTS. WE DO
HAVE AN EDUCATIONAL EXHIBIT GRAPHIC AND FLOOR EDUCATORS THAT EXPLAIN THIS,
HOWEVER WE WILL REMIND THE DIVERS TO AVOID DOING THIS AND THE EDUCATORS TO
BE MORE PROACTIVE IN EXPLAINING THIS). This aquarium didn't mention one
thing about conversation (although I hear the guidebook said something)
obviously they don't mind if they are teaching folks that its ok to sit on
coral heads. (ACTUALLY, WE HAVE SEVERAL VIDEOS AND TEXT GRAPHICS THROUGHOUT
THE AQUARIUM WHICH CONTAIN 100% CONSERVATION MESSAGES, AS WELL AS THE
EXHIBIT GUIDEBOOK. WE ALSO SELF PUBLISH FOUR BOOKS ON MARINE ANIMAL BIOLOGY
AND CONSERVATION). And then there was this tank of horseshoe crabs. You
could pick them up out of the water and touch them and stuff, if you had
trouble getting one, an employeee was there to pick them up for you. I can't
imagine the amount of stress that this puts on the crab. Don't get me wrong,
I'm all for hands on learning stuff, but I thikn that they were going about
this the wrong way. I didn't see the need to take the crabs out of the
water. (THE HORSESHOE CRABS ARE EXTREMELY HARDY AND DURABLE ANIMALS. IN FACT
WE CONSCIOUSLY CHOSE HORSESHOE CRABS ONLY AS OUR TOUCH TANK ANIMALS - AS
OPPOSED TO OTHER INVERTEBRATES OFTEN USED AT OTHER AQUARIUMS - BECAUSE OF
THEIR HARDINESS. THESE ANIMALS CAN LIVE OUT OF WATER IN HIGH HEAT FOR DAYS
WITHOUT ADVERSE EFFECTS. I ALSO NOTE THAT THE TWO REPLIES ON THE MESSAGE
BOARD SUPPORTED OUR USE OF THESE CRABS - WHICH ARE ACTUALLY MORE CLOSELY
RELATED TO SPIDERS). Ok, I know this rant has gone on long enough. I'm sure
those of you that know me, know tha I don't rant unless something really
bothers me. I'm curious has to how you guys feel about this, based on what I
have written.
In closing, I hope I have addressed your concerns about our animal husbandry
operations, and I hope you will reconsider your decision to not visit us
again. I can assure you that our primary goal is to provide a
scientifically accurate, educational and fun experience for our guests.
Please do not hesitate to contact me directly if I can answer any other
questions or just to talk about these issues in real time. Thank you for
your interest in Ripley's!
