Sea Notes

All Aboard the ARCC

The Animal Research and Care Center, commonly known as the ARCC, is located in nearby Marina. While the building isn't open to the public, it's playing a critical role in housing some of the majestic open-ocean animals that you'll see starting in July. That's when we open our Open Sea galleries—the replacement for the Outer Bay—which will be home to mola molas, sharks, sea turtles, pelagic rays and many other of your favorite species.

The ARCC may be understated on the outside, but it's bustling  with activity inside. Hammerhead sharks carve graceful turns in the biggest, 60 x 40-foot oval tank, along with bluefin tuna and pelagic rays. In the next, 40-foot tank, two enormous green sea turtles swim lazily about in anticipation of the next head of lettuce that will come their way, along with barracuda. The tank also includes yellowfin tuna and bonito. The final tank, measuring 30 feet, includes smaller hammerheads and a sandbar shark.

This Water is Carefully Watched
Along one wall of the ARCC, there's a food preparation room that would rival any restaurant kitchen, with industrial refrigerators and gleaming, stainless steel countertops. Next door, a complete animal health lab is nearing completion.

Enormous filters, underground storage basins and miles of plumbing help ensure that the water is kept at a perfect salinity, pH, temperature and cleanliness for the sensitive animals that live there, according to Scott Greenwald, associate curator of animal holding.

There are enough computers, wiring and technical wizardry to rival the Starship Enterprise. "We have a main computer that logs data 24 hours per day on what the systems are doing and how well they're performing," says Scott. And everything about the building is done in as "green" a manner as possible, from water use to energy needs. All told, it takes half a dozen staff to keep the facility operating and the animals fed and cared for.

One by One and Two by Two
As the Open Sea exhibit nears completion, animals continuously arrive at the ARCC, as well as at the Tuna Research and Conservation Center (TRCC) next to the Aquarium, and behind the scenes at the Aquarium itself. Most of these species are collected by the Aquarium's husbandry staff. The TRCC is home to the five-foot mola mola that was on exhibit back in 2009, along with dolphinfish and additional tuna.

All these animals will be featured in the new, upgraded million-gallon exhibit, along with one of the largest Pacific sardine collections we've ever had. And, of course, if all goes well, we'll have a white shark on exhibit this fall for the first time since November, 2009.

Californians ♥ Sharks!

Golden State voters have a soft spot for sharks. That's the finding of a new poll commissioned by Monterey Bay Aquarium to gauge support for legislation that would ban the sale, possession and trade of shark fins in California.

The poll found overwhelming support among Californians of all ages and backgrounds for AB 376, authored by State Assembly members Paul Fong and Jared Huffman.

The bill (heading to the Assembly floor for a vote) would end California's participation in the global shark fin trade that costs the lives of tens of millions of sharks each year and decimates ocean ecosystems worldwide.

The survey of found that 76 percent of all respondents, and 70 percent of Chinese-American registered voters surveyed, supported the shark fin trade ban.

While shark "finning" -- killing sharks only for their fins and discarding the carcass -- is prohibited in all U.S. waters, federal law does not prohibit the import of shark fins from other countries. That's what AB 376 would do.

Support for the bill is across the board: Californians young and old; Democrats, Republicans and independents; men and women; people with college degrees and those without.

Even people who have eaten shark-fin soup are strong supporters of the ban: 69 percent of those who have eaten the soup –- a luxury dish sometimes served at special occasions in the Chinese-American community -– expressed support for the proposed legislation. That includes 65 percent of California Chinese-American voters. Bill co-author Paul Fong, himself a Macau native, stopped eating the soup several years ago because of his concern about what overfishing sharks means for the health of the oceans.

(Demand for shark fin soup drives the global fin trade.)

Only 14 percent of all voters surveyed oppose the legislation, with 10 percent having no opinion. Among Chinese-Americans, only 18 percent of voters oppose the ban and 12 percent have no opinion.

Monterey Bay Aquarium is a lead sponsor of AB 376 and is working with a broad coalition of Asian Pacific American leaders to win passage of the bill. It's also allied with prominent Asian Pacific American "Chefs Against Shark Fins," who have created recipes for shark fin soup prepared without the use of shark fins.

You can take action to support the bill. And, if you'd like to taste a delicious and ocean-friendly soup, you can go here to find a recipe for faux shark-fin soup created for the aquarium by Chef Peter Pahk of Kingsmill Resort in Virginia.

Here's what Hong Kong-born chef Kin Lui of Tataki Sushi Bar in San Francisco has to say about why he won't serve, sell or eat shark fin.

Of Fins and Things

California AB 376 - legislation to ban the sale of shark fins in California - is heading toward its first committee hearing in the California Assembly.

You can show your support by sending an online letter to your assemblyperson from our website. Thank you to our supporters who've sent over 1,600 letters so far!

The bill has received lots of great press and has made front page news, not just in California, but also in the New York Times.

At the same time both Oregon and Washington are working on similar legislation and in fact the Washington state bill just passed a Senate vote this week  47-0! And all this in the same week that Guam signed its legislation into law. Hawaii enacted its own ban last year. (As in California, the Hawaii bill was co-authored by a Chinese-American legislator.)

Perhaps the most exciting news of all is that a prominent Chinese businessman and legislator, who just made the Forbes billionaire list is proposing a ban in China! According to the Agence France Presse report, such a measure would be highly controversial and take many years, but the fact that it's even being discussed is a quantum leap forward! And it's very likely his proposal was inspired by action in California and along the West Coast.

Meanwhile, we shouldn't underestimate the value of eliminating the market here in the U.S. Tons of shark fins are offloaded on our shores each year. Tons of shark fins equals an awful lot of dead sharks. We must lead the way and do what we can to prevent this wasteful practice that is decimating shark populations around the world.

Just this week, scientists estimated that there are as few as 219 adult great white sharks in the California population. No one knows if that is a population on the rise or decline, but either way, it's a small number. A juvenile great white released from the Monterey Bay Aquarium was finned after being caught in a fishery. That's one shark that never made it into the adult population. It's impossible to know how often juvenile sharks like great whites end up in a bowl of soup. But chances are, while there's a market for fins, it will keep happening.

PS: Have a hankering for shark fin soup, but not at the cost of the planet? Try our faux-fin recipe, created by Asian-Pacific chef and Seafood Champion Peter Pahk!

And if you'd like to hear more from AB 376 author Paul Fong about why he's championing the trade ban, check out this great video interview from the 8Asians website:

 

Save Sharks, Save Oceans

 
Around the world, two sharks die every second –- up to 70 million a year. That’s the estimate from scientists on the number of sharks being removed from our oceans, mostly just for their fins. It’s a staggering number, whichever way you slice it.

Fortunately the tide is turning and many nations and governments, including the U.S., (thanks to you!) have restricted or banned finning in their waters. Efforts now must turn to trade and distribution. You can’t legally catch and cut the fins off a shark in U.S. waters, but it is legal to own, sell or distribute the fins!

States can close this loophole; by banning the sale of shark fins, they can eliminate the market -– and go a long way toward protecting them in the wild.

Now California has a chance to take action – in a big way.

Two California state legislators Assemblymembers Paul Fong and Jared Huffman, have introduced legislation (AB 376) that would ban the possession, sale, trade and distribution of shark fins in California. The Monterey Bay Aquarium is proud to be a lead supporter of the bill and you can send a electronic letter to your Assemblymember today!

California is a significant domestic market for shark fins; in fact, two California ports are leading points of entry for all shark fins coming into the U.S.

Action can’t come too quickly. Given the numbers of sharks dying each year how can they keep up with the demand? The simple answer is they can’t. Like us, sharks reproduce late in life and have few offspring. Shark populations worldwide are in serious decline.

The situation is significant because of the pivotal role sharks play in the food web, maintaining the delicate balance of life in the oceans.  When you remove a top predator, the consequences are far-reaching and still little understood.

Over the coming months, we'll carefully follow and continue to support bill AB 376 as it makes it way through the California legislature. We’ll be sure to let you know when you can be a voice for sharks and healthy oceans and support the efforts of Fong and Huffman as ocean advocates.

Sharks have roamed our oceans for millions of years. Today, we’re faced with the reality that a third of open ocean sharks are threatened with extinction, all for a simple bowl of soup. We applaud the efforts of governments and businesses who have pledged not to serve shark fin soup and to those chefs who are finding alternatives. 

Sevengill Secrets

In September we released two healthy sevengill sharks into Monterey Bay. They thrived during their stay, the largest growing five inches (to more than seven feet in length) and gaining 36 pounds. Just as important, they helped educate thousands of visitors about the power and beauty of large sharks—and the dangers they face in the wild.

Within weeks, they were replaced by two more sevengills, collected near San Francisco—one measuring almost eight feet.

This rotation of sevengills through our Monterey Bay Habitats exhibit is great for shark fans—and shark conservation. By displaying, tagging and releasing these beautiful animals, we’re learning more about shark behavior, movement and population size, providing critical clues about what can be done to save sharks worldwide.

It All Started with Emma

Among the Aquarium’s sevengills, one shark looms largest: Emma. Displayed for four years in the early 1990s, she was close to 300 pounds and almost 10 feet. She was also one of the first sevengills to be tagged upon release in Monterey Bay, and traveled to Humboldt Bay before being caught more than two years later.

“We usually don’t name sharks,” says Manny Ezcurra, associate curator of elasmobranchs. “But Emma was such a presence.”

She also set the stage for the next 15 years of sevengill tagging. Since then, the Aquarium has tagged and released 24 exhibit sevengills; 62 others have been tagged and released at sea.

Tagging Shows How Far They Travel

So-called “floy tags”—attached near the dorsal fin—provide information about the shark in the event it’s caught by a fisherman. Over time, this information can help paint a picture of where sharks go, and for how long. More than 17 percent of sharks tagged by the Aquarium have been recaptured, “which is very high,” says Manny.

The most surprising finding so far is the sheer distance these sharks travel. “We’ve had some recaptured as far away as La Jolla, California; and Baja, California,” says Manny. “Some travel north, while others travel south. It appears that sevengill sharks are wide ranging in their movements along the coast, but tend to return to the same estuaries to pup, feed and mate.”

DNA Helps Connect the Dots

In addition the Aquarium—working with partners—has been collecting tissue samples for DNA analysis. This enables researchers to tie together different populations of sevengills, giving further clues about migration patterns and breeding.

“Initial data indicates that sevengills from California are very different from those of the western Pacific,” says Manny. “With time and more samples we may be able to get a clearer picture of the global populations of sevengills and how closely they’re related.”

While sevengills are not threatened, worldwide populations of large sharks are dropping precipitously. Meanwhile, surprisingly little is known about the habits of these sharks.

“If we can supply more information, that will make it easier to protect and regulate sharks,” says Manny. “Right now there isn’t a lot of information.”

Must Love Sharks

Why are people so fascinated with sharks, and sevengills in particular? “Visitors see large sharks and are really drawn to them,” says Manny. “And the sevengill is one of our largest coastal sharks.”

“A lot of people don’t know that the San Francisco bay is home to these large sharks—it’s a very important nursery. They’re right around us, but they’re a mystery to us.”

You can watch sevengill sharks being fed by divers Sundays and Wednesdays at noon in our Monterey Bay Habitats exhibit.

 

 

For the Love of Sharks

Joe Romeiro is an emerging underwater filmmaker with a passion for saving sharks. He first won wide attention for his short film, Death of a Deity, which was honored at the first BLUE Ocean Film Festival in 2009.

Now he's created another lyrical tribute to sharks, Nina Salerosa (Graceful Girl), shot in the Bahamas as a way to protect the sharks there -- and everywhere. (And he's not the only one standing up for sharks: Even survivors of shark attacks are urging governments and people to protect these incredible fishes.)

The beauty of Joe Romeiro's film, and his other works, speaks for itself.

Man and Shark: The Musical

Time for something a little lighter, after yesterday's horror show of shark-finning photos:

Andy Brandy Casagrande IV made his mark a couple years ago with his Great White Shark Song. Good natural history, strong conservation message, plus quirky and goofy lyrics that should give it long legs as a novelty song. (Dr. Demento, are you listening?) Heck, Andy was even invited to perform at an ocean film festival, and for researchers at an international white shark symposium in Hawaii earlier this year.

Now he's taken things to a whole 'nother level. He brought his his guitar (and his song) to Guadalupe Island, off the Pacific Coast of Baja California, to perform underwater for an audience of free-swimming great white sharks. Andy, too, was free-swimming. No cage for him, thank you.

As he told The Sun newspaper:

"When you first see that first white shark approach the boat, it's a feeling you'll never forget. You'll never forget that image for the rest of your life: this big, giant smile coming straight at you. And you realize you're not afraid of that animal at all. It's just beautiful, majestic, come swimming, gliding by."

He's his full, quirky self, in this Q&A for the San Francisco Ocean Film Festival Blog. And, of course, in the music video of his adventure -- here to enjoy, in all its glory.

 

Man and Shark: The Horror

It's one thing to talk about shark finning in the abstract. It's something entirely different to see and understand the impacts viscerally. The film Sharkwater brought the tragedy home. So, too, does Man & Shark-- a new book and accompanying short documentary about industrial-scale shark finning and its impacts around the globe.

Not only do photojournalists Paul Hilton and Alex Hofford tell the story on film. Alex is blogging about the issue, as is Paul. They are sharing their words and gut-wrenching photos online.

It's impossible to look at their work without grasping instantly the enormity of the problem, and what's at stake.

Many of Alex's photos (like the one above) come from Kesen-Numa City in Japan -- a place where, as he describes it, you can "see what happens when modern manufacturing processes and shark finning collide."

(If you've seen the Academy Award-winning film The Cove, imagine the same sort of slaughter taking place not annually but systematically to feed a voracious market for shark fins.)

Fortunately, the issue's coming to the fore, through groups like WildAid and through the efforts of many ocean conservation groups, including the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

If you live in the United States, you can urge your Senators to support legislation that would close one final loophole so we'll better enforce the U.S. ban on shark finning. It takes just a second to act.

We can't have healthy oceans without protecting the top predators, who play such an essential role in preserving the balance and vitality of ecosystems. We can make a difference -- by caring, by learning, by standing up and speaking out.

Photo copyright by Alex Hofford; used with permission;  www.manandshark.com

Whither the White Shark?

Last November, we released a young great white shark that had been with us for more than two months. During that time, she served as an ambassador to tens of thousands of visitors, helping convey the awesome beauty of these animals and letting us tell the story of the dangers they face in the wild.

So where is she now? The good news is that she did very well on release, traveling from Monterey Bay to Baja California, a distance of more than 500 miles. The last time we heard from her, she was near Ensenada, Mexico.

But about two months ago, her satellite tracking tag “started talking on land,” according to John O’Sullivan, the Aquarium’s curator of field operations. The white shark had been incidentally caught in a gillnet and died. She is the only one of the five white sharks exhibited at the Aquarium known to have died following its release.

Still, that shark, and the more than 180 others that have been tagged and tracked as part of the Aquarium’s White Shark Program, have provided invaluable information on where juvenile and adult great white sharks are traveling and how we might better protect them from overfishing, habitat destruction and other human activities.

Future Plans

So what can white shark watchers expect this summer, the time when we normally collect and display seasonal “young of the year?” The million-gallon Outer Bay exhibit is scheduled for renovation starting in August, and that means we won’t be hosting another white wonder until 2011 at the earliest.

For the Aquarium’s White Shark Project, however, it’s full speed ahead. “Our field research continues even though there will be no exhibit white shark this year,” says John.  

Working with colleagues at Tagging of Pacific Predators, as well as colleagues in Mexico and southern California, Aquarium staff hopes to answer one looming question: Where do young white sharks go? “Many of our released sharks have gone south to Mexico,” says John. “But we don’t know where they came from before that, and we don’t know where they’re bred or pupped.” Further tagging efforts can help answer these questions.

Data from other tagged sharks indicate that there are “two major population centers in the Eastern Pacific—one in central California, off the Farallon Islands; and one off of Guadalupe Island in southern California,” says John. The adults of these two distinct populations appear to travel back and forth to Hawaii and the “Shark Café,” a remote area between Baja and Hawaii known as winter and spring habitat for adult great whites.

“It’s a huge migration, and there must be an important reason they’re doing it, possibly related to feeding or breeding,” says John. “But no one knows for sure. Continued tagging will help us determine that.”

Tagging Technology

To help solve these mysteries, researchers will employ satellite tagging technologies. Currently, before a shark is returned to the wild, it’s fitted with two types of electronic tags. The first is an externally attached pop-up satellite (PAT) tag that eventually pops off, floats to the surface and transmits data via satellite. A second type, the smart position-only (SPOT) tag, sends data every time the shark’s dorsal fin breaks the surface. But these tags have limited lifespans and don’t supply information past six months. 

Now, to track shark movement for periods up to five years and closer to shore, researchers will be using implanted acoustic tags. This technology requires underwater “listening stations” to record the “pings” emitted by the tags. “The adult white shark program uses these extensively off the Farallones and Point Reyes, near San Francisco Bay,” says John. “But we’ll be deploying 11 more listening stations off southern California and Mexico’s Baja Peninsula in the next year.”

A fourth type of tag, the archival tag, may also be used. These are surgically implanted and can record temperature, compass heading and depth, and last up to seven years. The shark must be caught in order to recover the tag and its storehouse of data.

It’s all part of solving the mystery of the white shark.

“They’re a big piece of the ecosystem, and yet we know so little about them,” says Dr. Chris Harrold, the Aquarium’s director of conservation research. “What we do know is that there are not many of them. And that alone is cause for concern.  We’re trying to learn as much as we can, so we know their role in the marine ecosystem, and what kind of protection they need.”

We’re looking for people who love sharks just as much as we do. Tell us why you love sharks.

Shark TV: Great White Stories

It's white shark season -- at least on television, if not in the waters off California.

QUEST on KQED Public Media.

Three new videos debut, both on-air and online, through KQED public televison's QUEST science series in the San Francisco Bay area. Earlier, national television viewers got an opportunity to join Anderson Cooper and his 60 Minutes crew as they got up close with white sharks in South Africa.

QUEST's The Great White Shark: Meet the Man in the Gray Suit, debuts this week, and will live online at the QUEST website. Two "web extras" focus on great white sharks we've had on exhibit at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, and the chain mail our divers use to stay safe in the water while diving with great whites in the million-gallon Outer Bay exhibit.

QUEST also links to an earlier story about the work of the Tagging of Pacific Predators team (with whom we collaborate) to tag adult great white sharks off the Farallon Islands and Año Nuevo State Reserve near San Francisco -- as well as tunas, sea turtles and other far-ranging ocean animals.

For CBS, Anderson Cooper went free-diving with adult great whites during his profile of Mike Rutzen, known in South Africa as "The Sharkman." It's a riveting story.

All of the stories feature incredible footage of adult and juvenile great whites, insights into our growing knowledge about their lives and important messages about the threats facing not just great whites but all sharks worldwide. They also link to the research we're doing at the aquarium and in the field to help save great white sharks.

Definitely worth checking out.