The Dorsal Fin » Monterey Bay Aquarium

Former Monterey Bay Aquarium Great White Shark killed in fisherman’s gill-net

TheDorsalFin — Tue, 11 May 2010 23:00:33 +0000

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.

Monterey Bay Aquarium releases captive great white shark

TheDorsalFin — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 16:00:30 +0000

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.

Another great white shark on display at Monterey Bay Aquarium

TheDorsalFin — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 13:41:36 +0000

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.

While I’m completely in support of efforts to change public attitudes toward white sharks, it’s hard for me to get behind efforts to keep a white shark in captivity. It seems to go against the very nature of a white shark’s existence to be held in captivity, considering they are a highly migratory species. To the credit of Monterey Bay Aquarium, they do seem to keep a watchful eye over the white sharks that they’ve had on exhibit in the past and released them if the shark’s behavior seems to be negatively affected by being held in captivity. In addition, some of the white sharks that the aquarium has had in the past were inadvertently caught by commercial fishermen and were seemingly nursed back to health at the aquarium before being release back into the wild. In the case of this shark, the aquarium website states that the shark was captured with "the help of a spotter plane and a commercial fishing crew using a purse seine net." Based on the statement from the aquarium, it sounds as if the shark was targeted for capture, as opposed to be rescued from an accidental capture. If anybody can clarify this, I’d appreciate the information.

Ultimately, the white shark exhibit will likely generate some positive press about white sharks, as well as give aquarium visitors the opportunity to witness what I believe to be a magnificent animal. For white sharks, as a species, it seems like a very positive thing to have a white shark on exhibit, but when it comes to the single shark held in captivity, I have to wonder if being captured and put on display at an aquarium is really in that particular shark’s best interest. I guess you can’t have your cake and eat it, too.