Christchurch earthquake: Impact tosses fish from tanks

Quake damage to Cathedral Square. Photo / Herald on Sunday

The force of last week's 6.3-magnitude earthquake caused 40,000 litres of water to jump from tanks at an aquarium in Cathedral Square - killing some of the fish and causing others to be put down.

The Southern Encounter Aquarium had to be abandoned in the aftermath of the earthquake as staff and customers scrambled to get outside when the shaking started.

Chief executive Lynn Anderson said half the water in the big main tank leaped over the side, and many of the fish went with it.

"A number of fish went over the tank and 50 died as a direct result of the earthquake."

But one staff member worked furiously to try to save hundreds of others and released eels into the Waimakariri River and carpet sharks into the ocean.

"One person did all that. He is exhausted. He's gutted and doesn't want to speak about it."

But a number of fish - including stingrays - weren't as lucky and had to be killed with a fish anaesthetic.

Ms Anderson said one staff member had to crawl on hands and knees along a passageway while water was spilling out everywhere.

"They were heading for the gifts area because that's where the T-shirt stand was and they thought that it would at least be something soft there to land on them."

Another staff member who was standing cleaning a tank when the earth moved fell backwards onto the ground. As he fell, he saw the spire from the Christchurch Cathedral collapse but still ran inside to help safely evacuate the aquarium building.

Inside there was water everywhere.

"The visitors in the movie theatre got soaked. One [staff member] moving through the building was met with knee-deep water."

She said staff were "absolutely devastated" by the loss of the fish but that could not compare with the devastation wreaked on the city.

"It's terrible but I want to make clear, as tragic as it is, so many wonderful people were killed going about their business in Christchurch."