Day Four

Today two of us (Seth Wolters and Charles Delbeek) headed to Manila to ship out the corals we had been keeping in our coral corral. We woke up early in the morning and retrieved the corals and placed them in a cooler with seawater and made the 4 hour trip to Manila.

There we worked with our local exporter AquaScapes to pack not only our corals but also to ship a number of fish we had previously ordered for our Philippine coral reef exhibit. With all the necessary paperwork completed the boxes of fish and corals were taken to the airport at 5 PM for their non-stop flight to San Francisco. At 11 PM Thursday night, Steinhart biologists Matt Wandell and Richard Ross retrieved the animals and took them back the Aquarium. So not much diving for Charles and Seth today, but a good day nonetheless!

Corals are attached to pieces of styrofoam to keep them afloat and upside down in the water and away from the sides of the bag.

Placed inside of styrofoam boxes, they are then sealed and placed in cardboard boxes with cooling packs.

Photos Courtesy: Dennis Ty