Article published Oct 13, 2005

"Midas" touch: Giant sea turtle's homecoming at aquarium
By JESSICA BUJOL
Associated Press Writer

The New Orleans aquarium lost the majority of its collection during Hurricane Katrina, but on Thursday an old resident returned to bring some cheer to his beleaguered caretakers; King Midas, a 300-pound sea turtle, slid back into his home with a thunderous splash.

Midas was among a handful of creatures left alive after life support systems failed at the Audubon Aquarium of the Americas. Generators kept some mechanisms working, but they soon ran out of fuel, aquarium spokeswoman Melissa Lee said.

"We lost about 10,000 animals, a majority of the animals," Lee said.

But Midas, the 19-member penguin colony, two sea otters, an anaconda, the aquarium's bird collection, the tarpon, a few stingrays and a few hundred freshwater fish weathered the storm.

The penguins and sea otters even had their own security of sorts for a time; when the aquarium staff moved out in the midst of looting and flooding, New Orleans police officers moved in.

"They needed a place to set up a command post, we needed somebody to watch the building and watch over the animals," Lee said. "Our guys literally, as they were leaving, gave those guys a crash course in how to care for penguins and otters and they did."

The penguins - and the rest of the survivors - were later evacuated to aquariums around the country.

Veterinarians who have examined the otters and penguins at the Monterey Bay Aquarium in California report they are in good condition, considering their ordeal, and likely survived because of the care they received from police. The penguins and otters were taken to Monterey in what became a family reunion - Monterey Bay's penguin colony was bred from Audubon's, so the penguins are mingling with long-lost relatives. The two otters originally came from Monterey, where they were found orphaned, before being sent to Audubon.

The rest of the survivors will be brought back, Lee said, but for the time being, it was easiest to grab Midas, because he was only an overnight drive away at Moody Gardens in Galveston, Texas.

"It's really a sign of hope and rebuilding. It was a big rallying point for our staff, they've gone through so much, losing animals they worked with for 20-plus years," Lee said.

John Hewitt, the senior vice president and director of husbandry, returned to the aquarium a few days after Katrina, "just in the nick of time to save some of the animals", he said. What he saw - and smelled - bore no resemblance to the aquatic masterpiece he left behind.

The generators were working intermittently, it was about 140 degrees in the Amazon exhibit and the otters were swimming in dirty 90-degree water. The penguins were covered in their own filth, but otherwise seemed OK.

"Penguins are pretty tough little guys," Hewitt said.

Hewitt began the process of restarting the aquarium's systems, and the few living animals were shipped off.

Now comes the task of repopulating the aquarium's tanks. Some fish and other animals can be collected from the wild, some can be borrowed from other zoos and aquarium or purchased if there's a surplus. But some - like the 9- to 10-foot sharks - will be hard to find, Lee said.

"It was a beautiful collection and it will be very hard to replace," she said. "But we will."