As it turned out, what she wanted to do was swim about and snack on treats.
“Charlotte is doing well and enjoys interacting with guests and the divers,” the aquarium noted in an April 27 post, confirming that their pup watch was ongoing. “Her favorite thing to eat this week was scallops along with silversides. We thank you for your patience and kindness during Charlotte’s journey.”
And just when things started to feel a bit, well, fishy, the organization’s owner Brenda Ramer confirmed to WLOS News 13 that the ray wasn’t expecting.
In a May interview, Ramer told the Asheville-based outlet that Charlotte actually has a reproductive disease, and veterinarians have diagnosed the ray with diapause, noting, “We’re still trying to understand a lot of these terms ourselves.”
What they weren’t digging that deep into was social media speculation that they had made the whole thing up to create a splash.
“I can’t control what people think,” she continued, later adding, “I can only tell you what we know for certain. I’ve never been a liar. This was not a scam. This was not anything made up, but people do that. People have their own thoughts.”
