GAC Dubai has successfully moved a special shipment of Silver Tip Sharks, from Cairns in Australia to the United Arab Emirates. “Though it was the first time this particular species had undergone such a long haul journey, thanks to the seamless work by GAC this was one of the smoothest shark transports that I have ever been a part of,” says Paul Hamilton, Curator of Dubai Aquarium & Underwater Zoo at The Dubai Mall, the two sharks’ new home. “They arrived in such good condition and with minimum stress that they started feeding within 40 minutes after being introduced into their new environment.” Well-honed System GAC Dubai has been handling live shipments for Dubai Aquarium & Underwater Zoo since 2007 and has developed a well-honed system which ensures that sensitive shipments of live animals, ranging from rare fish to Gentoo Penguins, arrive safely at their destination and ensure their welfare throughout. The GAC team had everything set up to avoid any delays along the way and minimise the sharks’ time in transit, including special arrangements to assign an airport parking slot nearest to the specialised handling centre, fast track clearances, permission to bypass truck road bans and police escorts to ensure priority passage. But even the best-laid plans can be disrupted and that’s what happened when the departure of the shipment from Australia was postponed due to a tropical storm warning in Hong Kong, the transit stop.
“GAC has an ‘emergency preparedness’ mindset – ready to deal with any contingency that happens at any stage of the job,” says Mario Coelho, GAC Dubai’s Air Freight Manager. “All arrangements were in place for the original arrival date; we only had one day to re-arrange everything, brief all parties and obtain new passes from Dubai Civil Authority (DCA) and the police. Fortunately, our excellent relations with the local authorities helped ensure that everything was in place for the new date.” Once the plane touched down, the GAC team was at hand to oversee the offloading of the sharks in specialised containers and transfer to special cool dollies to ensure that they were protected from the seething Dubai summer temperature.  These were then loaded onto GAC’s temperature-controlled reefer truck for the road transport to the Aquarium. The operation was carried out in clockwork precision. Captured - by National Geographic It was all in the day’s work for GAC Dubai – except that the film crew from National Geographic Television (NAT GEO) was at the scene to shoot the entire movement – from arrival of the flight all the way through to containers offloading at the Aquarium and delicate transfer of the sharks to their new home – as part of a television series on transportation of wild animals. GAC also arranged for the filming permits, meet & greet and fast track clearance through immigration and customs for the film crew. Mario adds: “The operation would not have been the success it was without the support of everyone involved including DCA / Dubai Airport teams, DNATA, Dubai Police and Ministry of Water and Environment who helped expedited all approvals and permits.”