White Shark Holding Pen Is Back in Malibu
Waters
• Aquarium Hopes to Capture Another
Young Specimen for Temporary Display •
Small craft towed the Monterey Bay
Aquarium holding pen—the first step in the live specimen
tagging and acquisition phase of its White Shark Study
Project—into the waters off Point Dume last week.
According to Ken Peterson, the
MBA communications director, this year’s field season is
from now through early September.
This involves “working with
commercial fishermen who may accidentally catch young white
sharks; tagging and releasing most of them in the field so we
can learn where they’re traveling; and then [we’re]
hoping to get a candidate or two to bring to the pen as a
potential short-term (several month) exhibit animal at the
aquarium,” he said.
Young sharks that are caught are placed in
the holding pen for a health check and short-term acclimation
to confinement. If a specimen is deemed suitable for display,
it will then be trucked to Monterey and placed in the
aquarium’s special shark exhibit.
As the white shark project has evolved,
sharks have been released after a four-to-six month period,
depending on the animal’s behavioral response to
captivity.
Peterson noted, “[We’re] still
tracking the last shark we released early in February, and he
now is in the Sea of Cortez. He’s still—fingers
crossed—doing well.”
That shark’s travels can be monitored
at the Tagging of Pacific Predators web site at www.topp.org
