Ralph the Whale Shark

On January 12, 2007, a 22-foot whale shark named Ralph died at the Georgia Aquarium. An examination on why Ralph died had taken place in the University of Georgia College of Veterinary Medicine. Researchers say that the whale shark probably died of problems that occurred in his stomach. Jeff Swanagan, the executive director of the aquarium, had done a physical examination on Ralph in November 2006 and had found that Ralph’s stomach “appeared abnormal, because it was thin-walled and perforated. This likely caused peritonitis, which led to Ralph's death." Peritonitis is an inflammation of a membrane in the abdomen of a body. Another male whale shark in the Georgia Aquarium had also been examined. This whale shark’s name is Norton and he does not have the same characteristics in his body as Ralph had. When Norton and Ralph were prescribed with several treatments to an Ocean Voyager’s exhibit in order to keep a parasitic leech from entering the whale sharks’ bodies, they began eating less and less food. I felt extremely sympathetic when the article I read said the whale sharks stopped eating all at once and that Ralph ceased swimming one afternoon and died later that night. I feel that these treatments had upset Ralph’s abnormal stomach thoroughly, since two female whale sharks in the aquarium were perfectly fine when they didn’t go through as many prescribed treatments. On the other hand, aquarium officials like Jeff Swanagan believe that the treatments for the parasites might not have played a role in Ralph’s death. If only the officials of the aquarium had successfully revived Ralph or even if they did not treat the whale shark with so many medications, Ralph could have been living today.

To learn more about Ralph and the other whale sharks, you can visit this website:

http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/science/03/28/whale.shark.death.ap/index.html