Minister says Atlantis shark will be released

The minister for the environment, Dr Rashid Ahmed bin Fahad, said yesterday that the whale shark being kept at the Atlantis hotel aquarium will be freed.

**  FILE  **  This is a Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2008 file photo of  Sammy, the 13-feet (4 meter) long female whale shark swims inside a giant aquarium at the Atlantis hotel in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.  Environmentalists on Thursday Oct. 9, 2008 called on the managers of a massive new marine-themed resort in this Gulf boomtown to release a whale shark they are holding inside a giant fish tank. The  whale shark wandered into the shallow waters off Dubai's Gulf coast in August. A week later, representatives of the recently opened US$1.5 billion Atlantis hotel announced that the resort's marine biologists and veterinarians had rescued the whale shark and transported it to an open-air aquarium with 65,000 fish, stingrays and other sea creatures. (AP Photo/Kamran Jebreili) *** Local Caption ***  ARE101_Emirates_Hostage_Whale_Shark.jpg *** Local Caption ***  ARE101_Emirates_Hostage_Whale_Shark.jpg
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DUBAI // The minister for the environment, Dr Rashid Ahmed bin Fahad, said yesterday that the whale shark being kept at the Atlantis hotel aquarium will be freed, but not until hotel staff have finished treating it. The shark, which is four metres long, was caught off Jebel Ali on Aug 27 but the circumstances of the animal's capture were unclear.

It has been in captivity for about 40 days, sparking protest in part because of the whale shark's status as a vulnerable species as classified by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. Dr Fahad said ministerial officials had met the Atlantis staff and discussed the animal's future. "We had some meetings with the management at the hotel who are taking care of it and, at the moment, it is being kept in for treatment. It is being taken care of, so is not in any danger," he said.

"It will be released but it will be kept for some time yet and I cannot say when it will be released. It will be kept until it is in good health." He said the shark was useful for educating children and that the hotel was looking after it well. The whale shark has appeared in newspapers around the world. Late last week, the campaign to release it gained momentum when the Emirates Marine Environmental Group (EMEG) and its president, Ali al Suweidi, voiced concern.

The shark is being kept in Ambassador Lagoon, an 11 million-litre tank with marine life from the Arabian Gulf. eharnan@thenational.ae