Siam Ocean World was yesterday inspected by police from the Natural Resources and Environment-related Crime Division, led by Maj-General Latthasanya Pieansom-parn. Assistant curator Ross Werner admitted that though the animal husbandry team numbered 19, there was only one full-time vet working at the aquarium. But he said there were two other marine experts, including himself, to help take care of the marine exhibits.

Werner said the aquarium also had connections with marine experts in many other countries who helped as consultants. Since it opened in December, Siam Ocean World has received numerous complaints about the poor quality of its care for the marine life. Many fish are reported to have died.

Marketing manager Kantaporn Tongman said the fatality rate of the displayed fishes was at an "acceptable level" in that less than 10 per cent of the fish had died, and most of that was during transportation.

The latest case that caused concern among many marine biologists was the death of a giant grouper from eating a plastic ball as big as a ping-pong ball, which was accidentally released through the water treatment equipment. Werner promised it would not happen again.

The aquarium was also questioned about the origin of its displayed fish. After inspecting the aquarium, Latthasanya said he did not see any protected species for which an aquarium operator would need permission from the Fishery Department. He added that it was legal for anyone to own unprotected marine species as long as they were not caught in a marine park.

"That is something that is impossible to prove since fish can be anywhere in the sea, unless [the collectors] are caught red-handed and arrested," he said.

Kantaporn said the aquarium had bought marine life from many places in the world. In Thailand, it had only bought some small beautiful fish from two agents, but she did not know where they had acquired them.

"We only asked them not to do anything illegal," she said. 

Pennapa Hongthong

The Nation

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Born in captivity

The first spotted seal to be born in Thailand is now several days old but no one yet knows if it is male or female.

The seal pup was born at 8.20pm on Monday at Siam Ocean World aquarium where its parents have been on display.

Pisit na Phatthalung, an adviser to Siam Ocean World Company Limited, said yesterday the seal was healthy and had white fur all over its body. "We can't identify its sex yet," he said.

The seal baby and its parents will remain at the Bangkok-based aquarium until April 16, after which they will be sent to a more suitable facility in Shanghai.

Pisit said Siam Ocean World had no intention of keeping the spotted seals in the first place and thus had not prepared a tank for them.

"For the spotted seals, we would need a tank that is more than two-metreshigh so that they could swim about conveniently. At the moment the seals are using a tank we had prepared for penguins that will be soon arriving," he said.

Pisit said it would cost about Bt20 million to build a tank suited to accommodating the spotted seals. Siam Ocean World is located in the Siam Paragon shopping centre.