The Monterey Bay Aquarium Tuesday night placed a young white shark on exhibit-the third attempt since 2004 to keep this species in captivity. The male shark was caught 25 days ago by a commercial fishing crew in Ventura.

Three years ago, a similar female shark was caught accidentally in a net by halibut fishermen off Huntington Beach. It became the only great white shark on display in the world, drawing tons of attention by shark enthusiasts, with more than 1 million people who ventured to the aquarium to get a look.

About six-months later, the white shark had grown so much it was difficult to handle. And it started acting like a hunter, eating other sharks and sealife in the same aquarium. Read more about that story here.

There have been about three dozen attempts to keep great white sharks on display in aquariums since the 1950s, but the sharks refused to eat in the past. Prior to the shark caught three years ago in Orange County, no great white had been on exhibit longer than 16 days.

The second shark caught last year was held for 137 days before returned to the wild.

The same plan goes for the latest shark to be placed in the aquarium. The hope is to keep the shark on exhibit for several months to “change public attitudes and promote greater protection for these magnificent and much-maligned ocean predators,” according to a press release by the aquarium.
The young shark is 4-foot, 9-inch and weighs 67. 5 pounds. It was brought in Tuesday via 3,000-gallon mobile life support transport truck, from a 4-million-gallon ocean pen off Malibu it was held in since Aug. 4.

Little is known about great whites, including the sharks’ rate of growth or mating and breeding cycles.

The aquarium - through its White Shark Research Project - has tagged several juvenile white sharks off Southern California. Both sharks previously kept at the aquarium were tagged and tracked after their release.

DID YOU KNOW?

Great white sharks are the largest predatory fish and can weigh more than 2 tons. They have no natural predators other than humans. They eat fish, rays and other sharks. They can swim up to 25 mph in short bursts.
Fact: Great white sharks have as many as 3,000 very sharp teeth up to 3 inches long.
Did you know?: Females give birth to a litter of two to 14 pups that are up to 5 feet long. The pups swim away from the mother immediately after birth and get no maternal care.
Protection: Great white sharks have been proposed for protection under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.
Source: Monterey Bay Aquarium

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- Laylan Connelly

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