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MONTEREY
Great white shark puts jaws on display in aquarium tank
Man-eater settles for a salmon dinner -- making history and thrilling researchers
- Alan Gathright, Chronicle Staff Writer
Thursday, September 16, 2004
A young great white shark took a historic chomp out of a salmon fillet at Monterey Bay Aquarium on Wednesday, becoming the first of the fearsome and fascinating predators to eat in captivity outside the ocean.
News of the shark snack came as aquarium researchers were briefing reporters about the arrival Tuesday evening of the 4-foot-4-inch, 62-pound female in the million-gallon Outer Bay exhibit. The veteran scientists reacted with the thrill of proud parents as a throng of staffers cheered.
"Wow!" said Randy Hamilton, the aquarium's vice president for animal husbandry. "It doesn't get any better than that.''
Their reaction was a mixture of pride and relief, because all previous attempts to hold great whites in captivity have ended with swift starvation or release of the shark. The longest a great white has survived in an aquarium is 16 days.
Monterey aquarium officials say it's critical that they be able to study a shark in captivity, to unlock the mysteries of a powerful predator threatened with extinction and to counter the pop image of the great white as a monstrous eating machine.
"If we succeed in the long-term exhibit of a white shark, we can raise awareness about the threats they face and mobilize public support for white shark conservation,'' said Cynthia Vernon, head of the aquarium's conservation programs. "Given the way white sharks have been demonized in popular culture, a change in public attitude is critical if we want to assure their survival.''
No one was suggesting that great whites are cuddly creatures.
"This is the only shark species in California responsible for attacking human beings,'' said John McCosker, a senior scientist at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco and a leading expert on great whites.
However, McCosker added, "What I have discovered in my career is that the more people understand about white sharks, the more they . . . demystify them, the more people's children demand that we protect these animals -- even though they are dangerous to deal with.
"There was a time when we started in this business when the only good shark was a dead shark,'' he said. Now, he added, researchers know that such predators are vital to "keeping the ocean in a much better, healthier state. Where the great whites have disappeared, the whole ecosystem has collapsed like a house of cards.''
Researchers hope the Monterey aquarium's great white will help them understand how sharks feed -- and possibly why they mistake surfers and divers for seals. "We'll understand their behavior and be able to more to predict what it is that makes them tick, so we're not on their menu,'' McCosker said.
For now, however, the aquarium's top priority is to ensure the immediate survival of the year-old great white -- aquarium officials aren't giving it a cutesy name -- which is the only one in captivity in the world.
For two years, aquarium researchers have been tagging young great whites with electronic monitors off Southern California in an effort to learn more about their behavior and breeding habits. The tagging yielded the surprising finding that some great whites -- long considered coastal homebodies -- journey thousands of miles from California to Hawaii.
In July 2003, Monterey researchers captured another small female and kept it in a large, netted pen off Malibu for five days, where they had the rare success of getting the shark to feed in captivity before it was released.
The shark now on exhibit in Monterey was accidentally netted by halibut fishermen off Huntington Beach (Orange County) on Aug. 20. It was transferred to the aquarium's ocean pen for three weeks until researchers were convinced it was feeding and healthy enough to be trucked north in a 3,000-gallon tank- on-wheels.
"The well-being of this animal is very, very important to us,'' said aquarium veterinarian Michael Murray, who told of pulling the truck over on the freeway to make sure the shark was OK. Even now, aquarium staffers are baby-sitting the shark around the clock.
Several researchers said Monterey scientist David Powell, who has been involved in four unsuccessful attempts to exhibit great whites over four decades, has hit upon a possible breakthrough for achieving their survival in captivity.
After the frustration of watching apparently healthy sharks refuse to feed, Powell decided that the creatures were being stressed by immediate transfer from accidental capture in a fishing net to an aquarium.
He came up with the idea of a halfway house for great whites, placing them in the ocean pen until they adapted and began feeding.
"Needless to say, I am really delighted with the result that we've got now,'' Powell said.
The young shark hardly seemed a fierce hunter Wednesday as it glided around the giant Outer Bay exhibit. When voracious, 300-pound bluefin tuna zoomed like torpedoes for squid dumped into the tank by staffers, the shark dived for the safety of the bottom.
Officials said they don't expect the shark to eat its fellow tank residents, because other varieties of shark in captivity tend to prefer already killed fish to hunting for themselves. On Wednesday, the great white scarfed nearly two pounds of salmon from a pole held by an aquarium staffer.
"It certainly isn't as frightening as the movies,'' said Robert Beck, a retired teacher visiting from Buffalo, N.Y. "She's just a baby.''
See the shark online
People can view live video of the Outer Bay exhibit from 7 a.m. to
7 p.m. at www.montereybayaquarium.org.
CAPTURING GREAT WHITE SHARKS
The Monterey Bay Aquarium has put on display a young female great white shark. It wants to become the first aquarium to successfully exhibit a great white. Other attempts have ended in the death of the animal within weeks..
-- THE CAPTIVE SHARK
Female; 4-feet, 4-inches long; 62 pounds; 1 year old.
Caught in a commercial fishing net off Huntington Beach (Orange County).
Held in a 4 million gallon pen off Malibu since Aug. 20.
Currently in aquarium's million-gallon Outer Bay exhibit..
-- FACTS ABOUT THE GREAT WHITE
(Carcharodon carcharias)
Great whites live throughout the world in cool, coastal waters. In the eastern Pacific, they live from Baja California to the Gulf of Alaska. The Pacific "pupping area" is off Ventura County. In Northern California, they are sighted near the Farallon Islands; off Año Nuevo State Reserve in San Mateo County; and off Tomales Point and Bird Rock in Marin County.
The world’s largest predatory fish, the great white feeds on sea lions, seals, whales, sea otters and sea turtles.
Females give birth to two to 14 pups that are up to 5 feet long. The pups swim away from the mother immediately after birth.
Grow to as much as 21.5 feet and weigh up to 3 tons. Their skeletons are made of cartilage instead of bones. Females are larger than males.
Few in number and slow to reproduce, the great white is considered a “vulnerable” species by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.
Can detect extremely faint electrical currents of the Earth’s magnetic field and of living creatures.
Can smell one drop of blood in 25 gallons of water. .
Sources: Robert Lea, California Department of Fish and Game; John McCosker, California Academy of Sciences; Monterey Bay Aquarium
John Blanchard / The Chronicle
E-mail Alan Gathright at agathright@sfchronicle.com.
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