Driving cownoses and zebra
March 31, 2025
Another day, another beautiful Flying Sharks order! This time we shipped quite a few captive bred Scyliorhinus stellaris, Scyliorhinus canicula and Raja undulata to our friends from the Israel Aquarium in Jerusalem.
However, the good people from Lufthansa aren’t moving these big tanks anymore, so we had to drive 600 km to Madrid, and back, so they could board the Air Europa direct flight to Tel Aviv.
Driving that much after a full day of packing and/or teaching was hard, especially returning immediately after. But that little extra sacrifice ensured a short, and safe, route to the little critters under our care, so we didn’t even flinch when the time came to agree on that plan.
Needless to say that there was a lot of Red Bull and coffee involved, especially the day after. On a positive note, nobody was late for their teaching duties and all animals arrived in perfect condition, as always.
Well, one little Mullus surmuletus didn’t, but that didn’t bring us down from our traditional 99,9% success rate.
Many thanks as well to our friend Nuno Alexandre, from Nippon Express, who came with us all the way to Barajas airport and ensured the export process was as smooth as it could possibly be.
Now we just need to locate the envelope with all the original documents, which was placed in the hands of the ground handling crew in Barajas, but seems to have vanished between that moment and arrival in Tel Aviv…
It never ceases to surprise us that, no matter how many times one does these things, the admin component never seems to fly as smoothly and flawless as one would expect…
It somehow reminds us of that unforgettable Madonna song, “Like a Virgin”, when she sang “touched for the very first time”… Yep, that’s what it feels like each time we move fish across all these borders… Madonna knew it all along…
