Great White Shark at Monterey Bay Aquarium

[Ti]

The Monterey Bay Aquarium is lucky to have a great white shark on display. The animal was captured as bycatch in a flounder net off the coast of Southern California. Lucky an aquarium research vessel was close to the ship that caught her when the call came in that a live great white was caught. The shark was rescued from the fishing boat and put into a 4 million gallon sea tank where researchers monitored her health. She started to eat in the net tank and she seemed healthy, so the decision was made to bring her to Monterey to try putting her on display. 37 times previously did other aquariums try to display great white sharks... they all failed. The longest held in captivity was 17 days before the shark was released due to non-eating. She rode from SoCal to NorCal in a special flatbed truck. Upon arrival on Sept 15, she was added to the 1 million gallon display tank at the aquarium, she behaved normally, and quickly started to learn how to navigate in her new home. That first day, she ate.. not once but four seperate times! Never had this been successfully done before! Since being on display, she consistently eats and appears not to be interested nor bothered by her tankmates. She has been on display ever since. I went to see her today. I have always had a great respect for great whites... to be honest they scare the snot out of me! One of mother natures perfect predators! She is small, and still impressive. I am happy I took the time to see one, up close.

She is a little over 4'6" and weighed about 60 lbs when she arrived. Only time will tell how long she will be at the aquarium. It was a special treat to see her none-the-less! Here are some pictures I took while there... Enjoy!

[faze]

awesome pics ti such a beautiful creature

[AnAcOnDaMaN]

Its amazing to see the greatest Apex predator on display with such failure in the past. I guess you can compare them to the corallus species! I hope they have success with her and get into breeding. I'd like to see her when she gets to 20+ ft.

[haroldo359]

now that is a fish! good shots.

[natas]

hope the shark is doing ok.

I read that people have been trying to keep these guys for a long time and the failure rate has always been bad

[Maynard_JK]

how big to great whites get? around 15 feet? i do not have that much knowledge on sharks but do female great whites get larger than males?

[Ti]

I think this time, they are on the right track. She is young, about 10 months or so, and she was not in the fishing nets for very long, so she got the best care from the get go... the aquarium was not an after thought. I am keeping my fingers crossed to be able to go see her again next month. She is doing 1,000,000% better then every other great white ever put on display. My hopes are obviously high!

[savannah_babe]

that is soo awesome. i LOVE great whites, and have always been taken by them. awesome shots, and please keep us updated on her health.

[Ed_r]

I'd be curious to know what they are trying different, than in the past failed attempt? From what i have gathered in the past, the materials in making the tanks, reflect electrical impulses that totally confuse the shark. Great Whites seem to rely much more on electrical impulses than other sharks.

I saw the Great Hammerhead Shark at Mandelay Bay in Vegas, and it looked like it was doing poorly

Great Whites avg 15-18' but there are many recorded specamins in the mid 20' range I think the largest Great White ever caught by rod and reel was a bit over 3000 pounds.

[Ti]

I doubt that the aquarium will keep her in captivity much past a size of 10-12 feet... if she makes it that long in captivity. After that she will be too un-managable.

As to why this time a white shark is surviving captivity, all things went perfectly! You can read more about the shark here:

http://www.mbayaq.org/cr/whiteshark.asp

I suggest the excerps of the press conference for specifics.

[Karnis]

Man I hate thoes flounder nets ~Curses commercial fishers~

[RevMojo]

Cool pix. Keep us updated.