The Beacon
Stingray Sadness
While I’m partial to the ray tray at the National Zoo in Baltimore, I am a fan of all aquaria and sting rays in particular. I even made a kite that was a large ray when I was in middle school. I wish I had held onto that kite for today so that I could fly it over the National Zoo in memory of its fallen brothers and sisters.
This past holiday weekend, almost all the sting rays in the Smithsonian National Zoo’s Amazon exhibit mysteriously died. Immediate testing of the water showed low oxygen levels and the Washington Post reports that the remaining rays and fish are fine. Low oxygen levels are reportedly the most common cause of death in wild and captive gilled fish but that doesn’t make this incident any less depressing.
