Page 8 THE BATTALION
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 1978
A safe distance^ through glass
Eyeball-to-eyeball with a shark
United Press International
HONG KONG — The world s
largest aquarium enables landlub
bers to observe fish from different
parts of the world normally only
seen by the most experienced
deep-sea divers.
It is among the $32.5 million
Hong Kong Ocean Park’s many fea
tures and sits 500 feet above sea
level, commanding a panoramic
view of the South China Sea.
The 443,000-gallon tank requires
a staff of 26 to maintain the massive
equipment needed to keep alive the
30,000 marine specimens in the col
lection.
Senior Aquarist John Chin has not
taken a day off since he became in
volved in designing the tank in
1973.
“The aim is to give visitors an
eyeball-to-eyeball experience with
fish, normally the privilege of those
who indulge in deep-sea diving,”
Chin said.
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Although Ocean Park has what is
believed to be the world’s largest
saltwater aquarium tank. Chin said
the San Francisco Aquarium has the
largest collection of fish.
The tank, housed in a low, oval
shaped building, is surrounded at
four different levels by glassed gal
leries.
The beginning is the top of the
atoll, jutting out of the water like
the tip of an iceburg, but resplen
dent with tropical plants brought
from the Philippines, Indonesia and
South Pacific islands.
The shallow reef or lagoon of the
atoll is the home of many brilliantly
colored fish, such as the half-inch
blue damsel, the smallest resident
of the tank; grey and blue trigger
fish; butterflies and angels.
The mid-level or fringing reef is
large enough to allow many of the
fish to form schools. In this reef are
150 silver pompanos, weighing 15
pounds each, multi-colored snap
pers and groupers.
The barrier reef at the bottom is
the realm of sharks, eels, rays and
turtles.
Chin and his aides constructed
the complex reef out of fiberglass,
soaking it for two months in seawa
ter, sterilizing it and finally decorat
ing the outside with coral and flora.
“The key factor is making sure
anything artificial is compatible with
the fish,” Chin said, “and fiberglass
is one of the materials that doesn’t
bother them at all.”
Inside the reef and invisible to
the onlooker is a vertical pipe with
several outlets providing continuous
circulation at such a rate that the
water is changed every 90 minutes.
The water is pumped from the
South China Sea into a series of res
ervoirs which sterilize, filter and
add essential chemicals and provide
all the aeration needed before it
flows into the aquarium.
A heating system keeps the tem
perature at 78-82 degrees F. The
warmer the water, the hungrier the
fish get. Chin said.
Feeding is the responsibility of
Judy Hu, the chief diver whose
presence inside the tank has be
come so familiar the fish rub up
against her affectionately. “That’s
because they associate me with their
meals,” she said.
Twice a day Miss Hu and an aide
dive into the aquarium in full scuba
gear and suits to protect them from
some of the overzealous species that
tend to nip for attention.
“In a single day, the fish consume
about 70 pounds of food we carry in
nets,” she said. “Many are fed by
hand, including the 9-foot-long
sharks, to make sure each gets his
fair share.”
Meals consist of meat, shrimp,
crabs, shellfish and sea urchins. The
food that isn’t handed out is distrib
uted at the different levels so that no
one is left out.
Gluttony could be a problem.
Miss Hu said. “The small fish could
starve if we didn’t take such care in
dispersing the food throughout the
tank. All this takes at least 30 min
utes per session.”
Both Miss Hu and Chin regard
the fish as friends.
"There’s nothing dull about this
job,” said Miss Hu, a diverli»
years.
The biggest fear of any aqu
that the fish will catch a coni
disease. The team at Ocean Pi
been scrupulous in preventingi
such calamity.
"Our mortality rate is less!)
percent monthly," Chin said,
ing that the figure is very low.
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Kimchee (hot pickle)
pork stew in brown sauce
rice
Utility shut-offs center of protest
e exp
viden
posal i
edging
Dredg
annels <
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United Press International
WASHINGTON — Pledging to
“march to the plant gates” if neces
sary, a labor-citizen group coalition
is launching a campaign in 23 states
to prevent utility companies from
shutting off heat to consumers who
cannot pay their bills this winter.
At least 200 people have died in
recent winters after their gas or
electricity was shut off, the groups
contend, and thousands more suffer
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silently, some going without food or
medication to pay ever higher utility
bills.
The “Citizen-Labor Energy Coal
ition” demanded Tuesday that the
Department of Energy implement
the Public Utility Regulatory
Policies Act of 1978 which, a
spokesman said, provides that each
state public utility commission
should adopt policies forbidding
shut-offs during severe weather.
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The law also gives the energy de
partment the power to make sure
they do so, he said.
The coalition said Wisconsin,
Maryland and Rhode Island already
have banned winter shut-offs.
William Hutton, director of the
National Council of Senior Citizens,
said that unless shut-off policies are
changed, “I think some of the
utilities are going to see us marching
to the plant gates.”
Many older people are being
forced to make “life and death eco
nomic choices. In fact they’ve had to
make the cruel choice of heating or
eating in many cases,” Hutton said.
He said the figure of 200 deaths,
which came from press reports, is
probably “just the tip of the
iceberg. ”
He said in 1976, there were 1 mil
lion senior citizen households with
annual incomes of less than $2,000
who “spent over 50 percent of their
income on winter fuel.”
Bernard Veney, executive direc
tor of the National Clients Council,
which represents low incoi
people, said "there are thousand
persons in this country who W
total fear that their utilities »il
cut off. ” So far, he said, state-in
regulators have provided "m
sabotage than assistance."
One coalition member said
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Dr. Jof
Cents
l:xas A£
dent Carter’s approval ofli,,
deregulating the price oh Mdispc
natural gas amounted to a “de stly tha
warrant” for many consumersuu
policies preventing shut
pushed through.
Medical discovery near;
human organs to be frozei
We’ve
nking,”
ing mor
id?” He
oving
luctioi
ion and
United Press International
GATLINBURG, Tenn. — Scien
tists may be near a medical break
through that would allow human or
gans to be frozen and saved for later
transplants, a leading biologist says.
Such a step would mean hospital
patients needing transplants could
obtain genetically compatible or
gans with little or no delay. Dr.
Peter Mazur told a meeting of the
Council for the Advancement of
Science Writing Tuesday.
Organs removed from a dead per
son normally must be transplanted
within a matter of hours or they be
come useless, said Mazur, a
biologist with the Oak Ridge Na
tional Laboratory.
But Mazur said work performed
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by him and Dr. Stanley Leibo, also
of Oak Ridge, in the field of
cryobiology — the study of how
subzero temperatures affect living
systems — means mankind one day
may be able to control time, rather
than the reverse.
He said six years ago he and
Leibo and a British researcher suc
cessfully froze mouse embryos, then
thawed them and implanted the
eggs in foster mothers which gave
birth to healthy mice.
That accomplishment, along with
dramatic results in sperm preserva
tion, moved the scientists to press
harder in their efforts to freeze
human organs and store them in
definitely, Mazur said.
Cryobiologic advances with
mammalian embryos and fetal or
gans have made it likely that a
human kidney, composed of a wide
variety of cells, will be successfully
preserved in the near future, he
said.
with finding the right coolinj
thawing range because
cells have different limitati)
Bodily rejection of transplaH
organs, the most common
in such operations, could begra
reduced or possibly even elimial
through freezing, Mazur said
Until recently, the biologist
hopes for successfully present
human organs were dim. Van
advances in cryobiology,
have bolstered hopes ofaccompl
ing the feat soon.
Mazur said his research hasos
practical applications that ma;
be long in implementing
example, he said, human emb
could be preserved to permit?
viously infertile women toll
children; new or improved sps
of animals could be raised
United States by freezing emii?
in other nations and import
them; and embryos of rareanit
could be preserved to preventi
extinction.
But a major obstacle has to do
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