Rare Shark Makes Waves in Dubai

Luxury Resort Puts Threatened Fish on Display in Lobby Tank, Setting Off Protests and Campaign for Its Release

Ellen Knickmeyer, Washington Post 24 Oct 08;

"Already, other resorts are talking about getting their whale sharks. We don't know how many whale sharks there are, but all the sharks there are need to be out in the ocean where they're capable of carrying out their normal lives and breeding."

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates -- One day this summer, a fisherman spotted a 14-foot shark off this high-rise Persian Gulf boomtown. The polka dots on the creature's back showed she was a whale shark, an internationally protected species.

The fisherman, according to local news reports and the United Arab Emirates' Environment Ministry, was working on consignment, charged by a new $1.5 billion, ocean-themed resort here with finding exotic fish for its aquariums and water park.

Today, the shark is the star attraction in a tank in the black marble lobby of the newly opened Atlantis, a project of a state-owned development company and a foreign developer best known for founding the Sun City resort in apartheid-era South Africa. Guests pay $7,500 a night to stay in Atlantis's Poseidon and Neptune suites, where a glass wall affords a private view of the whale shark and the smaller fish in her tank. Diners in a seafood restaurant run by a Michelin three-star chef enjoy the same view.

Developers are generally the unchallenged heroes of Dubai's $1 trillion-plus building boom. There was no outcry last year, for example, when authorities deported hundreds of predominantly South Asian construction workers -- legally entitled to neither a minimum wage nor the right to strike -- for staging a protest for better pay.

But the fate of the freckled gray shark has caught public attention, suggesting that even Dubai's culture of developer-driven excess has its limits.

An Emirates-based newspaper, the Gulf News, is waging a Free Sammy the Shark campaign -- editors said they named the shark before the hotel disclosed it was female. The newspaper runs photos of residents wearing badges showing Sammy and calling for her release.

A Gulf News countdown keeps track of the shark's days behind glass, which numbered 47 as of Thursday.

Emirates residents started a Facebook campaign that has attracted more than 8,000 members. "This poor whale shark was caught off the shores of Dubai and needs to be put back where it belongs before she dies!!!" its mission statement declares.

Animal advocacy organizations, marine science associations and hotel industry publications have condemned Sammy's confinement. Other whale sharks in captivity include specimens at aquariums in Japan and in Atlanta.

"There's not a true scientific reason to keep the whale shark in a tank. It's clear that they brought it as an attraction," said Azzedine Downes, the Dubai-based vice president of the International Fund for Animal Welfare. "To remove a female from the population just further endangers the species."

Spokeswomen in the United States and Dubai for the hotel's lead owner, South African Sol Kerzner, did not return repeated calls for comment.

Kerzner has withstood tougher protests. His Sun City resort in South Africa inspired the Steve Van Zandt song that includes the refrain "I ain't gonna play Sun City" and became a symbol of international protests against South Africa's then-segregated government. The boycott lasted until apartheid ended in 1994; Sun City remains.

Hotel spokeswoman Ashley McBain, in a brief interview, denied a weekend announcement by the environment minister that Atlantis had agreed to free the whale shark. "I know that just as in the Bahamas, marine life is our number one priority," she said, referring to an Atlantis property in the Caribbean. "At some point the whale shark could be released."

A government-owned company, Nakheel, is the other main developer of the Atlantis in Dubai.

Last year, the Emirates and the Solomon Islands gave the Atlantis permission to fly 28 bottlenose dolphins here, a 30-hour trip from the islands. Environmentalists protested, saying that the bottlenose is endangered and that several Solomon Islands dolphins had died on display at other parks. Dubai closed its airport the day of the dolphins' arrival, heading off possible demonstrations by animal rights activists.

Trade in whale sharks is regulated by the Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species. They are the biggest fish on earth, growing as long as 65 feet. Despite their size, they are harmless to humans, feeding on small plants and animals that they sieve through their yard-long mouths.

Whale sharks can live 70 years, dive more than 6,000 feet and range for thousands of miles. They swim in both shallow and deep water, and researchers cite their curiosity.

The Atlantis announced the capture of Sammy in a Sept. 9 news release, saying the "whale shark was clearly under duress when it was sighted by a local fisherman." The hotel said it placed the fish in its lobby aquarium "due to the high temperature and salinity of the water" in the Persian Gulf. Experts say the Gulf and other warm seas are the shark's natural habitat.

Opposition to Sammy's confinement grew last week after Gulf News quoted the fisherman who caught the shark Aug. 28 as saying that the hotel had paid him and other fishermen to catch fish for display.

Asked about the fisherman's assertion, Abdul Razzaq Abdullah, an Environment Ministry spokesman, said hotel executives were "looking for one of every species," and added, "They wanted to bring their own boat."

Officials persuaded the Atlantis to use local fishermen to catch the exhibits, for the sake of local jobs, Abdullah said.

Leading whale shark researchers have urged the hotel to let them tag and release Sammy.

"It's such a dangerous precedent," said Jennifer Schmidt, a geneticist at the University of Illinois who is taking part in an 8-year-old project studying whale sharks.

"Already, other resorts are talking about getting their whale sharks," Schmidt said by telephone. "We don't know how many whale sharks there are, but all the sharks there are need to be out in the ocean where they're capable of carrying out their normal lives and breeding."

The Atlantis and the Environment Ministry say the captive shark is educating the public. In the hotel lobby, however, neither signs nor guides identify the shark for the tourists who pass through.

"It's beautiful!" said Chris Watson of Boston, a retired airline employee touring with former colleagues.

Watson and her friends were divided on the shark's confinement.

"Maybe with the pollution, they're better here," said Delila Serret, also of Boston.

"I love to see them, but I think they should be the same as birds -- free," Watson said. "Nothing should be caged."