SALON

Thursday, Nov 1, 2012 6:24 PM UTC

Hurricane heroism at the New York Aquarium

After Sandy, an aquarium shuts down indefinitely -- but not before its staff valiantly rescues its animals

By

Topics: Mitik, New York Aquarium, Hurricane Sandy, Coney Island, Animals, New York City, walrus, ,

Hurricane heroism at the New York AquariumOrphaned walrus calf Mitik, who arrived at the New York Aquarium in October (Credit: AP)

Among the casualities of Monday’s Hurricane Sandy was the New York Aquarium. The Wildlife Conservation Society confirmed Thursday that the beloved seaside venue sustained “serious flood damage” and will be closed “indefinitely.” The WCS went on to add that “Staff have established temporary life support for the aquatic systems, are pumping flood waters out of basements and mechanical areas, and are working to restore filtration and other life support essentials for the exhibit and holding tanks. We have a short window of time to get these systems re-established. If this cannot be accomplished in this critical period, we will temporarily relocate the collection to other AZA aquariums in the region.”

The aquarium’s severe damage is yet another painful setback for the city, and the decimated boardwalk region of Coney Island, which was pummeled by massive waves. But it’s also yet another one of the stories only now emerging, days after Sandy, about the generosity and bravery displayed during the storm. The WCS announced Thursday that 18 aquarium staff workers stayed on duty all throughout the hurricane to protect the animals. You’re free to start crying now.

Included among the animals who emerged safe was the aquarium’s most recent new star, the 234-pound walrus calf named Mitik, who arrived at Coney Island just in October after being rescued off the coast of Alaska earlier this year. The aquarium’s executive vice-president Jim Breheny issued a statement this week that, “As an orphaned calf, he was experiencing some health issues when he came to us as a rescue. We have been monitoring his condition carefully since his arrival and continued this around-the-clock care throughout the duration of the storm.” The aquarium had been, until Sandy, one of the few  in the country to  house walruses.

In the throes of a storm and its subsequent flood, the average person wouldn’t necessarily think first about how this would affect New York’s aquatic citizenry. So it’s an incredibly touching glimpse into the dedication and devotion of the folks at the Aquarium to learn that they stayed close to the animals during the storm, to protect their home as best as they could. Mitik didn’t come all this way to be abandoned now. That’s the best of human nature right there, reflected in an enormous pair of brown eyes.

 

Continue Reading Close
Mary Elizabeth Williams

Mary Elizabeth Williams is a staff writer for Salon and the author of "Gimme Shelter: My Three Years Searching for the American Dream." Follow her on Twitter: @embeedub. More Mary Elizabeth Williams.

Next Article

Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

What To Read Awards: Top 10 Books of 2012 slide show

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 10
  • 10. "The Guardians" by Sarah Manguso: "Though Sarah Manguso’s 'The Guardians' is specifically about losing a dear friend to suicide, she pries open her intelligent heart to describe our strange, sad modern lives. I think about the small resonating moments of Manguso’s narrative every day." -- M. Rebekah Otto, The Rumpus

  • 9. "Beautiful Ruins" by Jess Walter: "'Beautiful Ruins' leads my list because it's set on the coast of Italy in 1962 and Richard Burton makes an entirely convincing cameo appearance. What more could you want?" -- Maureen Corrigan, NPR's "Fresh Air"

  • 8. "Arcadia" by Lauren Groff: "'Arcadia' captures our painful nostalgia for an idyllic past we never really had." -- Ron Charles, Washington Post

  • 7. "Gone Girl" by Gillian Flynn: "When a young wife disappears on the morning of her fifth wedding anniversary, her husband becomes the automatic suspect in this compulsively readable thriller, which is as rich with sardonic humor and social satire as it is unexpected plot twists." -- Marjorie Kehe, Christian Science Monitor

  • 6. "How Should a Person Be" by Sheila Heti: "There was a reason this book was so talked about, and it’s because Heti has tapped into something great." -- Jason Diamond, Vol. 1 Brooklyn

  • 4. TIE "NW" by Zadie Smith and "Far From the Tree" by Andrew Solomon: "Zadie Smith’s 'NW' is going to enter the canon for the sheer audacity of the book’s project." -- Roxane Gay, New York Times "'Far From the Tree' by Andrew Solomon is, to my mind, a life-changing book, one that's capable of overturning long-standing ideas of identity, family and love." -- Laura Miller, Salon

  • 3. "Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk" by Ben Fountain: "'Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk' says a lot about where we are today," says Marjorie Kehe of the Christian Science Monitor. "Pretty much the whole point of that novel," adds Time's Lev Grossman.

  • 2. "Bring Up the Bodies" by Hilary Mantel: "Even more accomplished than the preceding novel in this sequence, 'Wolf Hall,' Mantel's new installment in the fictionalized life of Thomas Cromwell -- master secretary and chief fixer to Henry VIII -- is a high-wire act, a feat of novelistic derring-do." -- Laura Miller, Salon

  • 1. "Behind the Beautiful Forevers" by Katherine Boo: "Like the most remarkable literary nonfiction, it reads with the bite of a novel and opens up a corner of the world that most of us know absolutely nothing about. It stuck with me all year." -- Eric Banks, president of the National Book Critics Circle

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 10

Related Videos

More Related Stories

Comments

 5 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username ( profile | log out )

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

From Around the Web

Recommendations