doctor_slump 2008-7-14 09:42 PM
Hong Kong gets more rare Chinese sturgeons, says official
China will give five more of its rare sturgeons to Hong Kong, the head of an aquatic park said Monday, despite a diplomatic embarrassment when a previous gift was killed by a barracuda.
The five Chinese sturgeons, which are rarer than pandas, will join four surviving members of the previous donation and go on display at the city's Ocean Park from August 8, the opening day of the Olympics, park chairman Allan Zeman said.
"Sometimes out of bad things, good things happen. Now instead of having five sturgeons, we have nine sturgeons," Zeman said at a press conference on Monday.
The original batch of Chinese sturgeons arrived in the city last month as a gift from the Chinese National Aquatic Wildlife Conservation Association to represent the five Olympic rings, the first time the fish has been sent outside the mainland.
But just four days later, a 1.1-metre (3.5 foot), three-year-old sturgeon was bitten and killed by a barracuda in the aquarium.
The death was a diplomatic embarrassment for Hong Kong, and the city's Chief Executive Donald Tsang demanded a full report from the park.
Zeman said the latest school of sturgeons would be given their own tank.
The fish are known as "living fossils" because they have been around since prehistoric times but they are also referred to as "pandas under the water" because they are so rare.
China often uses gifts of pandas as a sign of diplomatic goodwill.