Bangkok--14 Jun--AirAsia
Siam Ocean World Joins Thai AirAsiaTo Fly the Brownbanded Bamboo Shark Back into Nature
Promoting Preservation of Thailand’s Oceans for World Oceans Day
Siam Ocean World joins Thai AirAsia in organizing “Sharks Can Fly”, a campaign to encourage the Thai public to value nature on the occasion of this year’s World Oceans Day on June 8th 2012. On 6 June 2012, 20 Brownbranded Bamboo Sharks, under the care of 20 students from Pathumwanram School, traveled on AirAsia’s popular Bangkok-Trang route to Hat Chao Mai National Park of Trang province to release the sharks into the wild and allow the students to study the local ecosystem up close.
The 20 Brownbranded Bamboo Sharks released as part of this campaign were bred and raised by Siam Ocean World in its aquarium under special attention. Siam Ocean World selected 9 male and 11 female sharks, reaching the age of 2 years old that were fit for reproduction for special training. The training prepare them for life in the wild before they were release into Trang’s thriving ocean ecosystem.
The transfer of the sharks took place with the utmost care and mindfulness to make sure the young sharks reached the ocean in complete safety. The first step of the process included releasing the 20 sharks into a preparatory tank where they were made to fast for 3 days, ridding them of the need to excrete waste during their trip. The second step involved placing the sharks into two-layer oxygenated plastic bags that will allow them to remain comfortable. The bags were placed in resilient foam boxes as a final safety precaution before embarking. Upon arriving at Hat Chao Mai National Park in Trang province, the sharks were acclimated to their new home as the water in their bags were slowly replaced with water from the open ocean until finally they were able to be set free.
Apart from the 20 sharks experiencing AirAsia’s Bangkok-Trang route, Siam Ocean World and Thai AirAsia will also be flying 20 students of Pathumwanaram School to witness the beauty of the ocean off Trang province’s coast. In helping introduce the young sharks to their new home, the students will also get a first-hand lesson in preserving nature and realize the importance of sharks as a part of the ocean’s ecosystem.
Siam Ocean World and Thai AirAsia’s cooperation to release Brownbanded Bamboo Sharks into the wild will not only serve as a wonderful celebration of AirAsia’s 2 daily Bangkok-Trang flights, which began service at the beginning of last year (for details visit www.airasia.com), the activity will also serve as a start point for the preservation of sharks and the ecological balance of Thailand’s oceans as a whole. The effort to aid sharks, which have existed on earth since prehistoric times, will nonetheless require the cooperation and determination of many more organizations, cooperation that can only begin with the appreciation of how integral a balanced and thriving environment is to the future of the planet.
Caption: Director of Engineering at Thai AirAsia Mr. Preechaya Rasametanin (third from left) and Siam Ocean World Bangkok Head of Marketing Sakonpas Plookjitrsom (third from right) lead 20 students of Patumwanaram School to take part in the "Sharks Can Fly" campaign, returning 20 Brownbanded Bamboo Sharks to the wild at Hat Chao Mai National Park with Trang Provincial Governor Theerayuth Iamtrakul (center) welcoming the group.