Post #115107 by DawnTiki on Thu, Sep 16, 2004 10:41 PM

Only Great White Shark at Calif. Aquarium

MONTEREY, Calif. - The Monterey Bay Aquarium has an unusual visitor that experts are hoping will be a permanent houseguest: a great white shark.

Notorious for their inability to thrive in captivity, no great whites are currently on display anywhere in the world and none has ever been keep on exhibit for more than 16 days.

Hours after it arrived from Malibu, the young shark lunched on salmon fillets — the first time a great white has accepted food in an aquarium, according to aquarium workers.

Commercial halibut fishermen inadvertently snagged the young female fish in their nets off the coast of Huntington Beach three weeks ago. It had been kept in a 4 million-gallon pen off the Southern California coast until Tuesday, when it headed north by truck — an unmarked, 3,000-gallon shark tank on wheels — to its new home in Monterey.

The aquarium hopes to keep the shark on long-term exhibit in its 1 million-gallon Outer Bay tank, which contains 75 other large fish and turtles. The tank is a little larger than one Olympic-size swimming pool.

The shark is 4 feet, 4 inches long and weighs 62 pounds. It could grow to about 21 feet and weigh more than a ton.

Of the almost 40 great white sharks kept at aquariums over the years, most were unintentionally caught in commercial fishing gear and brought directly to aquariums. They either died or were freed when they wouldn't eat.

Nobody knows why they don't thrive in captivity, although many marine biologists speculate that the predators can't handle the stress of being captured and contained.

The last time the aquarium exhibited a great white was in 1984, when the young fish died after 10 days in captivity :( But scientists believe they have learned painful lessons.

This time, they tried to lower the animal's stress level by allowing it to swim in a larger area for a few weeks before bringing it to the aquarium.