We have a Great White

W

wonrib00

New member
Before I tell you the story, I have to give a little background. The Monterey Bay Aquarium is a non-porfit organization and since we are we get the chance to help fund a lot of really good causes. A little over three years ago there was to be a project that was known as the Great White Shark Project. This project in a nut shell was designed to capture a GWS, put it in some sort of holding pen, see if it would feed, and hopefully we could learn a thing or two along the way as we still knopw very little about the animal. When we determined that it would be Southern California where we would go, we started to let all the fishermen know that we were going to be in the area. Well last year was the second year in the project and we had a GWS in a pen made for tuna with a capacity of about 4 million gallons. We were able to get the GWS actaully feeding on salmon steaks in the pen. Time ran out, we had to give the pen back to the owners, and so we tagged the shark and let it go back into the wild.

Year three, this year. At the start of the summer, we purchased our own four million gallon pen (that can be made smaller - that will come into play later) and packed up and went to So Cal. Early on we had two GWS delivered to us in good health by fishermen (cought in nets). Those were not to our liking, so they were tagged and realeased. Along came GWS number three and it was exactly what we were looking for. It was a 4' 4" female that weighs 62 lbs, and about a year old. We had her in that pen for 25 days. Every day we would make the pen smaller and smaller. Finally we got the pen to about the size of our million gallon tank. The problem with the water in So Cal right now is, it was very merky. We put lines in there that had different foods on the end for the GWS to eat on. We never once saw it take the food, but the lines were coming back with nothing attached to them, so we knew she was eating.

So the decission was made to send down the 3,000 tuna transport and attempt to bering her to her new home in Monterey. The trip went off without a hitch. Nine hours later she was ready to be put into her new habitat. But the real excitement does not come until today.

The GWS went into the exhibit on Tuesday September 14th, and on Wednesday the 15th, the Monterey Bay Aquarium made marine biology history, again. At about 11:30 AM the GWS was offered a salmon steak, and she took it. No GWS in the history of attempts has ever taken prepared foods, or live foods for that matter. So she was offered a second helping, bang, she took that one as well. We fed her four times. everyone that witnessed this feet was in absolute elation. I want to put some pics up, but there is a very strict no photography rule ight now. We want her to get used to her new enviroment, and that will never happen with flashbulbs going off in her eye the first couple of days in there. I will try to get some pics up on Friday, but dont hold me to that. I would love to describe to you about how she looks, but no words would do her justice. Sorry for such a long post.
 
Sounds interesting, keep us up to date with any happenings and I wish ya'll success.

If the Great White works out there I may have to setup another Nano tank for one at my house, are they reef safe? =)
 
That is an amazing feat. The Atlantis aquarium also wanted to do just that, keep a GWS. I'm glad the Monterey Aquarium was able to get it done! Good job!
 
Very interesting and exciting! This may open the door for an awesome educational exibit and as the only one in captivity, bragging rights! :) Best of luck with the new lady!
 
Wow! Very cool! I can't wait to see the pictures. I hope you are able to learn much about this animal and share it with the rest of the world.
 
That is so very cool. Let us know when it's open to the public. I'd definitely drive up to see a great white.
 
And to think I've been toying with the idea of getting up there to see Monterey Aquarium. When will she be on public display??? I'd really love to see her!
Congratulations guys. Hope she stays healthy!
 
Next step is a billfish! I am out in those waters all the time fishing. Was it near Catalina islands by any chance? I always see the tuna hatcheries out there. Congrats on a great feat.
 
Go figure, this story was on our local news last night - it's a lot smaller than I thought it was going to be (read this post first before and had mental image of a GREAT white shark. Forgot how small a 4'4" shark would be. :)

Spleen
 
wow! I also heard that no GWS has ever been kept in captivity for more than a week? Is feeding the reason? Thats really great and good luck... Do you think this will be in the news? I'd like to read more....
 
z28cam: we have a 3,000 gallon tank on the bed of a truck we call a tunabego as it is suually used for transporting tunas, but we have had other sharks, anchovies, sardines, dolphinfish, al kindas of cool stuff. It is made of fiberglass and has all sorts of high tech devices on it. There is carmera looking inside the tank, O2 tanks, its own filter, heater, chiller, just about enerything for a tank, except for a calcium reactor. It is fixed to a trailor and can be hooked up to a big rig. The four million gallon pen is just a big net for the most part. It has a side walk so that you can walk around the whole thing. Small fish are free to come and go. It is anchored to the bottom of he ocean so it doesnt float off.

fishinchick: she is on display as we speek. The quarinteen (sp)facitlty we have is not large enough to house and animal such as a GWS. The million gallon tank was pretty much the only choice we had.

SDRotary619: she was cought of the coast of So Cal, in the Huntington Beach area in Orange County.

spleen93: When she went on display in the morning, we called all the press we usually do when we have something going on. There are usually 30 or 40 reports and their cameras. We had two show up for this press conference. Looks like others are going to be late on the story.

JumboShrip: there are a few reasons why GWS dont last on display. Most aquariums (us included back in 84) are contacted by fishermen that have captured one in their nets and offer it to us. More than likely all the aquariums and zoos that have had them were totally unprepared. Taking an amazing animal from the ocean to straight to a tank, really isnt the best idea without giving it limited space first. That is why we started out with a large pen, and kept shrinking it, to see if it would react well.
 
everyone can lear more about it here

You can also see the tank she is in at this site

The tank she is in has the camera inside the exhibit. The music that you hear is actaully playing when you are looking at the exhibit itself. You will see her swim by periodically, but the best picture you will see is the turtles' butt. The picture is not the best in the world as it is in a pretty dark tank. The picture to the left of the binoculars is the main viewing window that is 52' across and seamless, no braces inbetween the sheets of acrylic.
 
Here'e the article.......





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.''
 
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