Fire Threatens Fish in Europe's Largest Aquarium
December 16, 2003
COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - A fire raging in the North Sea Museum on Denmark's northwestern coast on Tuesday threatened to destroy Europe's biggest aquarium, the Oceanarium, housed inside the museum building, police said.
"The fire is under control to the extent that it is no longer spreading. But we can't get anywhere near it and we don't know if the tank will hold," police officer Erik Kjaersgaard in the nearby town of Hjorring said by telephone.
The elliptical 'tank' contained 4.5 million litres of sea water and around 4,000 fish, among them a specimen of the ocean sunfish, or mola mola, which is the world's largest known bony fish species.
Together with the seals and sharks, the Oceanarium's mola mola, which weighed 132 lb as a baby and can weigh up to two tonnes when fully grown, has been one of the aquarium's top attractions since a local fisherman delivered it in 2000.
Danish TV2 television showed footage of the large building enveloped in flames and billowing black smoke.
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle....FQCRBAEOCFEY?type=scienceNews&storyID=4004146
