DUBAI: A 13-feet shark that has spent several weeks as the star attraction in a tank in the lobby of a luxury hotel is to be freed after a campaign that included protest songs and the setting up of a “Free Sammy” page on Facebook, TimesOnline.com reported on Sunday.
The shark became the star attraction in a tank in the black-marble lobby of the newly opened Atlantis, a project of a state-owned development company, where guests pay $7,500 a night.
“The whale shark should be freed,” the website quoted Rashid Ahmad bin Fahad, Minister of Environment as saying. “There is no decision yet on the timing, but definitely it will be freed.”
Sammy’s plight has dominated local news headlines. Dubai’s main daily, The Gulf News, led a “Free Sammy” campaign, decrying the confinement of the whale shark as “cruel beyond belief”. Children donned “Free Sammy” badges, activists waved placards and supporters put bumper stickers on their cars.
DJs at Dubai 92, a local radio station, played their own Free Sammy song, to the tune of Michael Jackson’s Free the World: “Free the whale shark, Make it a better place, For all the small fish who are scared they might be eaten,” the remix ran. “There are frogs and dolphins who are scared they might be dinner.”
Dubai residents also launched a Facebook campaign, signed by more than 8,000 people.
