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I must get one for my "Tank!" That would be so cool! I would have the Wodin of the fishes!
By Laura Mecoy -- Bee Los Angeles Bureau
Published 2:15 a.m. Thursday, July 10, 2003
OXNARD -- Monterey Bay Aquarium scientists hooked, tagged and released a young mako shark Wednesday morning.
But the great white shark they sought remained elusive, as did their hope of becoming the first aquarium to capture and keep one of these feared predators alive in captivity.
Wednesday was the first of 32 days the aquarium staff plans to spend trolling the Southern California coast in search of young white sharks to study and perhaps collect for display at the aquarium.
Until now, three weeks is the longest a captive white shark lived, and that was at Sea World in San Diego.
"They would swim for days," Christina J. Slager, a Monterey aquarium curator, said. "But ultimately, they never got going. They never ate in captivity."
Immortalized in the movie "Jaws," great white sharks are the world's largest predatory fish. Adults can grow to 20 feet in length and weigh as much as 5,000 pounds. Their razor-sharp teeth can measure up to 3 inches long and number as many as 3,000 at a time.
Despite their notoriety, little is known about the lives of great white sharks, their feeding patterns or the depths they reach.
The Monterey aquarium launched a $1.2 million, multiyear white shark study last year to solve some of these mysteries and clear up some of the misconceptions about what its staff says is a frequently maligned animal.
"If you have a chance to see a great white swimming in the wild, you will see they are majestic creatures," said John O'Sullivan, the aquarium's curator for field operations. "Unfortunately, they will eat you, given the wrong opportunity. ... But this is a beautiful animal, something that deserves recognition as something other than a beast."
The aquarium's staff is seeking white sharks aged 1 year or younger because the 4-to 5-foot-long pups are much easier to handle and tag than an adult shark.
The aquarium has yet to catch a white shark to study -- much less bring one home -- despite its best efforts. Last year, its staff fished for a month without catching a single white shark.
They did tag one white shark but it was caught on a commercial boat off Año Nuevo Island, central California coast. Twenty days later, that same shark was caught near Hawaii.
"White sharks are encountered all up and down the California coast," said Randy Kochevar, the aquarium's science communications manager. "Most people thought they just migrated along the coast. ... Now we know they are very far-ranging animals."
In recent weeks off Southern California, a white shark was caught in the waters off the Hermosa Beach Pier and two sharks, believed to be great whites measuring about 6 feet in length, were spotted in the ocean near Pacific Palisades.
Those sightings make the aquarium's staff slightly more optimistic about its chances of catching the elusive fish this year.
To increase their odds, the scientists are working with local fishermen again this year to tag and release any white sharks inadvertently caught in fishing operations.
The aquarium's staff also started its search a month later than last year in the belief that warmer water would bring more white sharks to Southern California.
Researchers have estimated that about 100 adult white sharks live along the California coast. While they believe Southern California is a pupping ground for white sharks, no one is certain how many young ones ply those waters.
White sharks are protected in California and listed as a "vulnerable" species by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. They have no natural predators other than humans. But they are slow to reproduce, and, Slager said, trophy hunters have helped deplete their numbers.
"It would seem their numbers are declining very rapidly," the aquarium curator said. "There is a possibility that they may be at the end of the line."
White sharks may live 20 years or more, but no one is certain of their life spans.
"They are just big question marks," Slager said.
The aquarium's study is designed to gather data through the electronic tags researchers plan to attach to the sharks. The tags look like oversized ballpoint pens and record water temperature, depth and other information that are to help determine how these creatures live.
The tags are designed to break free from the shark after a month and float to the surface. There, an antenna feeds the collected information to a satellite.
The scientists also brought a 5 million-gallon ocean pen and a transport truck with a life-support system to test the process of placing a white shark in captivity.
In the past, Slager said, most white sharks kept in aquariums had been caught by people fishing, rather than researchers who know more about avoiding trauma to the creatures.
The aquarium's staff plans to take any healthy-looking young white shark it can get into the ocean pen to see if it will feed in captivity.
If they find one that swims vigorously and feeds there, the scientists would then simulate the process of moving the animal to the aquarium. They would place it in the onshore transport tank for six hours, or approximately the time it would take to drive to Monterey.
Then, they would return the shark to the ocean pen to see if it would continue feeding and stay in good health.
Only then, the researchers said, would they take the shark to Monterey for display in the aquarium's Outer Bay exhibit.
Any white shark that doesn't fare well in the experiment would be tagged and returned to the wild.
http://www.sacbee.com/content/news/story/7003997p-7952693c.html
http://www.enn.com/direct/display-release.asp?objid=D1D1364B000000F64312A97DD7C213A8
By Laura Mecoy -- Bee Los Angeles Bureau
Published 2:15 a.m. Thursday, July 10, 2003
OXNARD -- Monterey Bay Aquarium scientists hooked, tagged and released a young mako shark Wednesday morning.
But the great white shark they sought remained elusive, as did their hope of becoming the first aquarium to capture and keep one of these feared predators alive in captivity.
Wednesday was the first of 32 days the aquarium staff plans to spend trolling the Southern California coast in search of young white sharks to study and perhaps collect for display at the aquarium.
Until now, three weeks is the longest a captive white shark lived, and that was at Sea World in San Diego.
"They would swim for days," Christina J. Slager, a Monterey aquarium curator, said. "But ultimately, they never got going. They never ate in captivity."
Immortalized in the movie "Jaws," great white sharks are the world's largest predatory fish. Adults can grow to 20 feet in length and weigh as much as 5,000 pounds. Their razor-sharp teeth can measure up to 3 inches long and number as many as 3,000 at a time.
Despite their notoriety, little is known about the lives of great white sharks, their feeding patterns or the depths they reach.
The Monterey aquarium launched a $1.2 million, multiyear white shark study last year to solve some of these mysteries and clear up some of the misconceptions about what its staff says is a frequently maligned animal.
"If you have a chance to see a great white swimming in the wild, you will see they are majestic creatures," said John O'Sullivan, the aquarium's curator for field operations. "Unfortunately, they will eat you, given the wrong opportunity. ... But this is a beautiful animal, something that deserves recognition as something other than a beast."
The aquarium's staff is seeking white sharks aged 1 year or younger because the 4-to 5-foot-long pups are much easier to handle and tag than an adult shark.
The aquarium has yet to catch a white shark to study -- much less bring one home -- despite its best efforts. Last year, its staff fished for a month without catching a single white shark.
They did tag one white shark but it was caught on a commercial boat off Año Nuevo Island, central California coast. Twenty days later, that same shark was caught near Hawaii.
"White sharks are encountered all up and down the California coast," said Randy Kochevar, the aquarium's science communications manager. "Most people thought they just migrated along the coast. ... Now we know they are very far-ranging animals."
In recent weeks off Southern California, a white shark was caught in the waters off the Hermosa Beach Pier and two sharks, believed to be great whites measuring about 6 feet in length, were spotted in the ocean near Pacific Palisades.
Those sightings make the aquarium's staff slightly more optimistic about its chances of catching the elusive fish this year.
To increase their odds, the scientists are working with local fishermen again this year to tag and release any white sharks inadvertently caught in fishing operations.
The aquarium's staff also started its search a month later than last year in the belief that warmer water would bring more white sharks to Southern California.
Researchers have estimated that about 100 adult white sharks live along the California coast. While they believe Southern California is a pupping ground for white sharks, no one is certain how many young ones ply those waters.
White sharks are protected in California and listed as a "vulnerable" species by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. They have no natural predators other than humans. But they are slow to reproduce, and, Slager said, trophy hunters have helped deplete their numbers.
"It would seem their numbers are declining very rapidly," the aquarium curator said. "There is a possibility that they may be at the end of the line."
White sharks may live 20 years or more, but no one is certain of their life spans.
"They are just big question marks," Slager said.
The aquarium's study is designed to gather data through the electronic tags researchers plan to attach to the sharks. The tags look like oversized ballpoint pens and record water temperature, depth and other information that are to help determine how these creatures live.
The tags are designed to break free from the shark after a month and float to the surface. There, an antenna feeds the collected information to a satellite.
The scientists also brought a 5 million-gallon ocean pen and a transport truck with a life-support system to test the process of placing a white shark in captivity.
In the past, Slager said, most white sharks kept in aquariums had been caught by people fishing, rather than researchers who know more about avoiding trauma to the creatures.
The aquarium's staff plans to take any healthy-looking young white shark it can get into the ocean pen to see if it will feed in captivity.
If they find one that swims vigorously and feeds there, the scientists would then simulate the process of moving the animal to the aquarium. They would place it in the onshore transport tank for six hours, or approximately the time it would take to drive to Monterey.
Then, they would return the shark to the ocean pen to see if it would continue feeding and stay in good health.
Only then, the researchers said, would they take the shark to Monterey for display in the aquarium's Outer Bay exhibit.
Any white shark that doesn't fare well in the experiment would be tagged and returned to the wild.
http://www.sacbee.com/content/news/story/7003997p-7952693c.html
http://www.enn.com/direct/display-release.asp?objid=D1D1364B000000F64312A97DD7C213A8
