Rare fish ‘put at risk’ by six-hour power cut

The aquarium was one of 1,331 Northern Powergrid customers hit by a six-hour blackout in Hull last Thursday, which stretched its back-up supply to its limits.

It was the third power cut suffered by The Deep in the last two months, which have now cost it more than £30,000 in lost revenue and damage to equipment.

But chief executive Colin Brown said the financial losses were not his main concern.

He said: “It wasn’t just the money but the damage to our reputation; turning 1,500 people away who were disappointed by their day out in Hull, and there would have been massive damage to our fish had it gone on any longer. The fish can live without power for some time providing they are given oxygen. We are ok for six hours but I wouldn’t want to push it more than that.”

Mr Brown said some of the fish were “irreplaceable”.

“It’s not a problem that could be solved by money,” he said. “Our two sawfish were rescue animals from Australia and they are an endangered species. The last time we lost a shark it took over a year to replace a single animal.

“You have to find the animal at a particular place at a particular time of the year and you can only take them at a certain age. If you gave me a million pounds it wouldn’t solve the problem.”

A Northern Powergrid spokesman said: “We do not underestimate the effect this loss of electricity had on the Deep. We did however keep in contact with the attraction with regular phone calls to the Deep’s staff and electrician, updating them as our engineers worked hard to repair the fault, and understood them to be pleased with the flow of communication they were getting from us.

“We ensured an emergency generator was made available to provide the Deep with power if necessary, but thankfully it was not needed.”