Back on July 8th, the John Ball Zoo suffered a catastrophic failure, when heavy rain shorted out one of the two oxygen pumps for the Stingray Lagoon; but because it wasn’t a total power loss, the alarms never went off alerting staff to a problem.  The next morning zoo staff would find that the 18 cownose stingrays and 3 bamboo sharks had died because of the malfunction.

Immediately following that news, the zoo said it would be rebuilding the stingray lagoon.  It looks like while that is still the plan, it’s not happening anytime soon.

John Ball Zoo CEO Peter D’Arienzo told Fox 17 that the Stingray Lagoon would stay closed for the foreseeable future until they can determine what’s needed to build a state of the art stingray facility. They are currently working with aquatic consultants trying to figure out what’s needed to be done, to have an exhibit that is protected from the weather and have the necessary backups that such an accident/tragedy can hopefully never happen again.

Mr. D’Arienzo also thanked the community for their support and kind words following the loss of the stingrays and sharks.

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