The juvenile great white is working on a sequel to the movie Seven Pounds - which incidentally did include a mention of the Monterey Bay Aquarium and our jellyfish collection.
From a quick calculation this morning, the girl has eaten over ten pounds of mackerel since she started snacking on September 1. An average of a pound a day - but actually her appetite is highly variable. Some days she just wants a nibble and another she eats the shop!
She showed interest in the salmon steak yesterday and "mouthed" it, but decided more mackerel was her thing.
Great whites like to mouth things. It's their way of investigating their world. What would you do without hands? It's also the reason that a number of people have survived a great white kiss. If you take a little bite of a candy and find out that it's cherry and you don't like cherry, you don't eat it, right? Same goes for sharks. We don't taste good. Distinct lack of blubber. It's the shark equivalent of scratch and sniff.
Recently a group of people who'd been to a shark tasting went to Congress to appeal on behalf of sharks. They didn't see themselves as "victims of shark attacks," but as something dressed akin to seal skin in a predators' environment. They went in support of the Shark Conservation Act of 2009. This legislation aims to do what its predecessor (the Shark Finning Act of 2000) failed to do. Finally bring an end to illegal shark finning and trade in U.S. waters. Though it will still be legal to fish for sharks, and to bring the fins back to shore, providing they are still attached to the body. The practice of shark finning results in live sharks being discarded finless, to die a slow and lingering death.
You can support the Shark Conservation Act today, and let your Senator know why it's important to you. The great white says thanks, and pass the mackerel please.
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