The Dorsal Fin

A juvenile white shark that was once on display at the Monterey Bay Aquarium has turned up dead. The female great white was “collected” by the aquarium on August 12, 2009 and subsequently released back into the wild on November 4, 2009.

According to satellite tracking tags attached to her prior to release, the young female white shark (which can be seen in the video above) had initially traveled from Monterey Bay to Baja. She was near Ensenada, Mexico the last time she was “heard” from, according to the aquarium’s Sea Notes blog.

Unfortunately, Sea Notes goes on to report that about two months ago, the shark’s satellite tracking tags started reporting from land. Oscar Sosa-Nishizaki, a Mexican researcher, traced the satellite tag movements to the home of a fisherman who acknowledged having caught the shark in a gill-net, according to Pete Thomas’ Outdoors blog.

Great white sharks are protected species in Mexican waters, but it is not entirely uncommon for younger white sharks to end up being caught accidentally by fishermen and sold as “swordfish” at Ensenada fish markets, as the Underwater Thrills blog reported on last year.

While another white shark is gone, hopefully her death will help bring more attention to the problems that the species is facing.

According to Monterey Bay Aquarium Sea Notes, a juvenile female white shark, which had been held in captivity at the Monterey Bay Aquarium‘s Outer Bay Exhibit, was successfully released back into the wild on November 4, 2009. The 5’5″ 100 lbs. white shark had grown a couple of inches in length while in captivity and had put on about 20 lbs. of weight. The white shark was captured in August and had been on display at the aquarium since August 26, 2009. Over the past weekend, the white shark was involved in multiple incidents of “aggressive behavior” toward other sharks in the exhibit, prompting the aquarium’s husbandry team to make the decision to return the animal to the wild. In addition to her safe release, the white shark was tagged with two electronic tracking devices, one of which will report real-time location data, the other will report temperature, depth, and location data in 6 months. According to Randy Hamilton, vice president of husbandry, the white shark’s health was “excellent” upon her release.

YouTube user SideOffVideo recently posted this quick video shot of the captive white shark at the aquarium, prior to her release.

According to the Monterey Bay Aquarium website, they now have yet another juvenile white shark in captivity and on display in their Outer Bay exhibit. The 5’3″ female white shark was "collected" on August 12 by aquarium staff near Malibu, California. The shark was held for observation in an ocean holding pen to determine if she was eating and swimming appropriately before being transferred to the Outer Bay exhibit. According to the aquarium website, they hope the white shark will remain on exhibit for several months and serve "as a way to change public attitudes and promote protection for this magnificent and much-maligned ocean predator."

A juvenile female great white shark like this one is currently on display at Monterey Bay Aquarium.