Monterey Bay Aquarium scientists put a shark in the pen in Malibu

A great white shark has been swimming in the floating pen outside Paradise Cove in Malibu since Tuesday, caught accidentally by a commercial fisherman and turned over to marine biologists with the Monterey Bay Aquarium. It's a young male, 4 feet 9 inches long, no estimates on weight yet.

The shark stays under observation in the 4 million-gallon mesh offshore holding pen until the biologists decide whether to tag and release it, or send it to Monterey for a star turn in the wildly popular Outer Bay exhibit, the aquarium's largest. If the new great white makes the cut, it will travel to Monterey via the "Finnebago," a 3,000-gallon oblong holding tank filled with water kept at 68 degrees. Sharks are kept in the exhibit for a few weeks to a few months, then are released into the ocean with tracking devices, which transmit back a wealth of information.

The aquarium typically looks for "young of the year," or sharks younger than 1, who eat bait fish but won't hunt larger prey such as seals and sea lions. (A photo of last year's shark, at left, swimming in the exhibit. For an update on the aquarium's previous tenant, check our recreation blog, Outposts.)

Opinions about keeping a shark in captivity are -- surprise! -- sharply divided. Some object on moral grounds, others say learning as much as possible about the predators will help protect them.

Meanwhile, the newest candidate is swimming in circles in Malibu. We'll keep you posted.

-- Veronique de Turenne

Photo of shark: Randy Wilder / Monterey Bay Aquarium Foundation

Comments

[tarwater]

We bemoan the loss of biodiversity in our oceans, yet when a fisher accidentally traps a great white shark, the supposed saviors of ocean biota rush to the front and proclaim that the animal will be held in captivity for what ever reason. The correct course is to release the shark back into the Pacific Ocean.

[matt]

I think I saw a guy in a leather jacket and water skis getting ready to jump it!

[LeftLA]

Somebody call CAA -- one of their agents is loose!

[Rothgar]

Why is the hugely wealthy aquarium paying commercial fisherman to 'accidentally' capture these sharks for pay-- and then pretending to have saved it from same said Fisherman; safe seafood cards indeed!

Meanwhile, how many are killed and lost at sea (never reported to the public) in the effort. The loss rate is something like 5 to 1, these animals are being targeted by fisherman being paid to fish for them by the big bucks aquarium- and then we're told that the captures were accidental and that the receiving aquariums are 'rescuing' the sharks.

Stop paying the gill netters to catch them, and then pretending to come to the rescue...

Ironic how money moves and ethics can be packaged:

Rothgar

[Scott]

To the Comment Poster Rothgar: Where o' where is there any information in the article that the fishermen were paid for the capture of the shark?

[daledo]

Matt, that's classic.

[Michael E. Gordon]

hey, just what we need, More imprisoned animals to entertain humans in "wildly popular" exhibits (I guess exhibit popularity is more important than this animal's life). Will we kill this shark when it lashes out at its handlers for being held in captivity?

[Ken Peterson]

All of the white sharks are returned to the wild, carrying tracking tags to help fill the considerable gaps in our understanding of where these threatened animals spend their time (and therefore, where they may be in need of additional protection).

We and our research partners have placed tracking tags on 15 young white sharks since 2002, plus tagging the three animals that have been on exhibit at the aquarium for up to six months. The tag on the most recent animal just popped free halfway up the Sea of Cortez, adding significantly to our knowledge of their range.

More than a million people have seen a white shark in person at the aquarium, and we have contributed more than $1.2 million to field studies of juvenile and adult white sharks since our research program began in 2002.

We've also found, in surveying visitors, that people who see a white shark in person come away with stronger attitudes supporting shark conservation.

The only money fishermen receive is to compensate them for the fishing time they lose so they can check their gear more frequently, hold a shark until our university research partners can get measurements, take blood samples and fit the sharks with tracking tags, and the time and fuel it takes if we ask them to bring a shark to the holding pen in Malibu.

Details of the program are online: www.montereybayaquarium.org/whiteshark/

Ken Peterson, Communications Director
Monterey Bay Aquarium

[sceptical enquirer]

Mr Peterson,
Can you enlighten us regarding fatality rate, how many of the sharks have failed for each that has made it to the pens since 2004?

Thanks,

[Skeptical enquirer]

All of the sharks returned to the wild, dead or alive.

Real good...

Skeptical:

[Veronique]

To Skeptical enquirer:

Just fyi: Ken Peterson's been away from his desk today but is looking up the stats and will post a reply to your question when he gets back.

Veronique

[Marcie!]

Hello!
i dont know were you are geting you fishing for pay info it couldnt be more wrong. Belive it or not, Great white sharks are not local to the so.cali area and in the past few years we have been seing more and more of them... the reason they want to do more research is due tot he HUGE drop in the numbers on there pray animals on our west coast being them much closer to the shore for smaller pray. the more we know the better! just in the past few years we have found out so much about these great animals that we had no idea about other then a basic idea of there pray. i am a CA local an i saw the moving of the first shark from the ocean pen to the " fish tank on wheels" and it was some thing to be seen for sure! just the time and money invested into the building of this truck. plus look at the money that the monterey bay aquarium gives back. they money they invest in local beach clean ups and informing people on ways to protect our oceans!

[Tokyo Joe]

Marcie,
You dont know what you are talking about.

The aquarium doesnt do squat for beach clean-ups or environmental activism.
You are confusing the work that Surfrider Foundation does with the hype and promotional BS that the aquarium floods the media with.

For every shark that is delivered to the aquarium, as many as 5 die as a consequence of being netted, detained, entrained and transported; the fisherman are being paid to catch these sharks- what else would motivate them? Kindness?

Get a clue.

All the money they generate goes toward their inflated salaries, with a fraction actually dedicated to field research or tangible conservation work.

TJ -- Halfmoon bay CA

[Scott]

Wow, so all of you that think they are doing more harm than good would just prefer they do nothing but release the animals leaving us again knowing absolutely nothing about them? Particularly when we know that the species as a whole is on the decline? I saw one of the sharks a couple of years ago, and I stand in awe of an animal that has lived and evolved for a lot longer on this earth than we have. In addition, all of the juveniles seemed to have done well once they left the aquarium. If you all had followed this story over the past four or five years now you would know that some sharks have died, but that was mostly due to the damage done in fishing nets before they were brought to the pen off Point Dume. I will also admit that seeing them in captivity I too worry about the animals and have mixed feelings about them banging into the walls. At the same time I feel that at least MB Aquarium is making strides at finding ways of keeping an animal that is in serious danger of extinction.

I seriously fear the day is coming soon when captivity might be all that is left of the white shark and numerous other ocean species. Then where will we be?

[Guk]

Q) What do you call the paparazzi at Paradise Cove?

A) Chum.

[Ken Peterson]

To the comments from Skeptical enquirer and Tokyo Joe:

Since 2002, we and our university research colleagues have handled 30 young white sharks in Southern California waters. Of those, 29 were caught accidentally in gear used by commercial fishermen who were fishing for sea bass or halibut. The 30th was caught hook-and-line by our staff, and was one of three young sharks brought to the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

Of the 29 caught in commercial gear, five died. Some of those deaths undoubtedly were the result of injuries the sharks sustained in fishing nets before we received them. (There's no definitive way to say in how many cases that was a factor.)

We do know that, because fishermen are willing to alert us when they accidentally catch a young white shark, we've been able to tag and track more than a dozen animals and learn more than has ever been known about their movements in waters off Southern California and Baja.

You can find the published data from the initial tagging work here: http://topp.org/sites/topp.org/files/topp/publications/Weng_juvwhitesharkIRMEPS.pdf

Ken Peterson, Monterey Bay Aquarium

[Andrea Tinney]

Dear Kien,
I have a few questions for you about keeping the Great whites in captivity. How many sharks have died in getting the 3 you have kept in the outer bay tank? How much damage is a Great white allowed to have before it is set free? Who is getting the 1.2 million dollars for Great white research and how much is profit for the aquarium? What is wrong with studing the Great white in the wild as other marine biologists have done in the past? As a shark conservationist and lover of these beutiful animals i would like to know the answers to these questions, Thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
Andrea Tinney

[Veronique]

Here's the answer to the question about how many sharks have died in the course of the Monterey Bay Aquarium's shark project, from Ken Peterson:

"Since 2002, we and our university research colleagues have handled 30 young white sharks in Southern California waters. Of those, 29 were caught accidentally in gear used by commercial fishermen as they were fishing for sea bass or halibut. The 30th was caught hook-and-line by our staff, and was one of three young sharks brought to the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

Of the 29 caught in commercial gear, five died. Some of those deaths undoubtedly were the result of injuries the sharks sustained in fishing nets before we received them. (There's no definitive way to say in how many cases that was a factor.)

We do know that, because fishermen are willing to alert us when they accidentally catch a young white shark, we've been able to tag and track more than a dozen animals and learn more than has ever been known about their movements in waters off Southern California and Baja."

For published data, check out the "Shark update" post on June 30, which has a link to the study.

Thanks to all for the interest in this post (and for the funny comments, too).

Veronique