Durban — It took a team of 14 aquarists, three veterinarians, one veterinary nurse, one crane driver, two technicians, four divers and a couple of volunteers to perform medical check-ups on six large stingrays and one bowmouth guitarfish.
This was when the South African Association for Marine Biological Research (Saambr) conducted annual medical check-ups on the marine animals on Monday.
Saambr’s Ann Kunz said: “The medical check-ups for all but two of the animals were performed above the water which means that each ray needed to be carefully captured in a large hoop net by an experienced team of divers. The rays were then gently brought to the surface of the pool and carefully transferred onto our “ray tray”.”
She said the “ray tray” is a custom-made rectangular stainless-steel frame with reinforced mesh across it which creates a kind of “hammock” where the ray’s weight is evenly supported throughout the move.
“A crane is used to lift the animals out of the exhibit and into the waiting sedative bath in the 2000l trailer tanks used for the procedures. The stingrays range in size from just under 50kgs to nearly 200kgs, so the exercise of moving the animals out of and back to the exhibit has to be done very carefully,” Kunz explained.
She said that each animal’s general external condition is recorded before they are weighed and measured.
“A blood sample is taken from the animals and analysed. This blood sample allows us to pick up signs if there is maybe something wrong with the animal that is not yet visible externally and will allow us to take action in good time. An ultrasound is done to check the animals’ heart rate and condition of their internal organs,” Kunz said.
She said that once the procedure is complete, the stingray is transferred back into the exhibit where an aquarist guides it to a nice quiet section on the exhibit where it can lie quietly until the effects of the sedative have worn off.
“We are sure that two of our largest female stingrays, a ribbon tail and a thorntail ray are pregnant, so we kept any possible stress on these two special ladies to a bare minimum and didn’t remove them from the exhibit. They have been with us for many years and are acclimatised to being handled, which allowed us to gently hold the rays in the shallows while they underwent their medicals,” Kunz explained.
She said well done to everyone and made a special thank you to Dr Paolo Martelli and Irene Tai from 香港海洋公園 Ocean Park Hong Kong.
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