After 137 days with Monterey Bay Aquarium, the juvenile male white shark was released this morning. I feel lucky to have been able to see this one up close for the past month and to learn so much about it.
Here are some interesting bits of information:
The male shark was originally caught by MBA's white shark experts, by line and hook, just off of the coast of Malibu, California.
It's age is estimated at just over a year old.
This white shark was 5-feet, 8-inches, and weighed 104 pounds when he was first put on exhibit. Upon his release he had grown to 6-feet, 5-inches long and weighed 171 lbs.
This is the second white shark ever successfully kept on exhibit anywhere in the world. By "successful", I mean that the shark was able to safely navigate the exhibit he was placed in (the Outer Bay Exhibit) and took food. Monterey Bay Aquarium has been the only aquarium so far to do these things.
The female white shark was with the aquarium for 198 days and reached 6-foot, 4-inches with a weight of 162 pounds. During her time on exhibit, she grew 1 foot, 4 inches in length, and put on 100 pounds!
The male shark was released just off of Point Pinos, and was tagged with a 90 day PAT tag.
This shark never attacked any of his exhibit mates, instead feeding on plenty of wild-caught salmon steaks which were personally delivered to him on the end of a pole (the salmon was tied to the pole with an easily digestible cotton string, in order to prevent the voracious tunas from nabbing it).
During his stay, the white shark generally cruised towards the top of the exhibit with his dorsal fin occasionally breaking the surface of the water.
Flashes from people taking pictures seemed to cause the white shark to spend less time towards the front of the glass, and more time in the back of the exhibit where he was a little harder to spot.
It was amazing to see how many people's perceptions of sharks as malevolent, murderous monster were changed by simply watching him calmly cruising around the exhibit.
"Why isn't he attacking the other fish?" is a question often heard in the Outer Bay Exhibit. When people find out that these creatures don't kill everything in the oceans, and in fact help to keep the wildlife populations healthy, they want to learn more and generally start to develop an interest much different from the morbid, sensationalized portrayals that they are used to seeing on TV and in the movies.
A lot of people seem truly surprised to learn that most white shark attacks on humans are accidental. A human with four limbs sticking off of a surfboard looks like the silhouette of a sea lion or a seal from below. Upon tasting human, most white sharks don't seem to come back to for seconds. It's kind of like biting into what you think is a caramel flavored chocolate, and finding out that it is in fact the chocolate covered fruit and nut loaf.
Isn't it cool that the aquarium keeps its animals' welfare first and foremost in mind, when considering whether or not to keep them on exhibit or to release them. From what I've seen at aquariums around the world, this is not always the case.
dude - I could not be more envious of where you work. Do they now have an optimum size limit for captivity? I'm curious why they don't allow a bit more growth. It'd be interesting to hear about the route this guy took upon release.
We are still learning about the optimum conditions of keeping a white shark, but keep in mind that the male White Shark was the second ever to be successfully kept on exhibit anywhere in the world. To think that for the 50 years of actively pursuing this species prior to a success that all efforts to keep a white shark on exhibit at institutions around the world have failed is astounding.
Could the white shark have been kept longer in captivity? It is very likely, however, I think it was very responsible and respectful to all of the parties and interests vested in shark research and conservation that it was released while it was thriving, instead of waiting until it looked like it was REALLY time to go. How many institutions would give up their star attraction so readily? It would be nice to think that they all would, but who knows?
As for where he's going, stay tuned. I think we're all interested to tag along on his journey.
The female white shark grew up in more ways than just size alone. I heard that the aquarists began to notice that the other fish were behaving differently around her, trying to avoid being too close or in her path. She attacked a couple of the other sharks, and it was a sign that something in her white shark head had changed. Maybe that's why they released the male shark earlier. No use in creating the opportunity for the turtle, sunfish, tuna or other sharks to get hurt!
Actually, the male White Shark never exhibited any signs of aggression towards its exhibit mates. The only reason it was released was due diligence on the part of the Aquarium, to make sure that the White Shark remained in optimum health.
It is very likely that the shark could have been kept longer, but, again, the shark's health and the the health of the other fish in the Outer Bay Exhibit were first and foremost in the minds of the staff who made the decision to re-introduce the shark into the wild.