Sea Notes

White Peacock

The great white shark made a comeback today. No - not at the back door asking for more mackerel - but featured on the Today show, telling the important story of how tagging and tracking these sharks in the Pacific could give us the answers we need to save this magnificent creature.

"How close is this animal to endangered?" asked Environmental Correspondent, Anne Thompson. "As close as you get," was the response of Barbara Block of Stanford University - one of our valued partners in our juvenile white shark research program.

As you'll see if you watch the segment below, the young white shark has phoned home a couple of times since her release. She is equipped with two different satellite transmitters; one is affixed to her dorsal fin in such a way that when her fin breaks the water's surface, the antennae is free to transmit her location. The other tag we hope not to hear from until the time it is programmed to self-release in another 5 months or so. This tag will give us much more detailed information about how deep she dove, the water temperature at all those depths, and where she traveled between the hits received from the other tag. Click on the image for a closer view of her latest known position - above the submarine canyon, offshore in Monterey Bay.

As NBC rightly pointed out, all sharks are in danger - from overfishing, finning and accidental entanglement. Every year, new species of sharks are added to the World Conservation Union's "red list of endangered species."

Right now, the Senate has the Shark Conservation Act of 2009 in front of them. Last week it passed through an important committee and is awaiting a floor vote. If you haven't yet taken action - please do so today on our website and ask for shark finning to come to an end in U.S. waters. The young white shark thanks you on behalf of all her kind.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Where the White Things Are

Big news on the great white shark front today involving the young shark we've had on exhibit at the aquarium and publication of major findings about the lives of adult great white sharks off the California coast.

First, the bittersweet: We returned our fifth young shark to the wild this morning, a little over two months after we placed her in the Outer Bay exhibit. She was swimming and feeding well, grew a couple of inches and nearly 20 pounds during her stay (to 5-foot-5 and 100 pounds at release), and inspired nearly a third of a million visitors to know more -- and care more -- about the fate of white sharks in the wild.

But a few incidents of aggressive behavior over Halloween weekend involving other sharks in the exhibit prompted our Husbandry team to make the call: It was time for her to go home. (She got a small bite from an unknown exhibit-mate on Saturday, and a day later was seen chasing scalloped hammerheads and biting a Galapagos shark.)

“I’ve always said that these animals will tell us when it’s time to put them back in the ocean. Now was clearly the time,” said Randy Hamilton, our vice president of husbandry. “Her health is excellent, and we learned a lot while she was with us. Based on past experience, we have every expectation that she’ll do well after release.”

We'll track her movements in the wild with two electronic tags. One will deliver real-time data on her location to researchers in the lab. The second will report in six months from now with details about where she went, and the depths and water temperatures she favored. It's all part of our ongoing field research program to learn more about the lives of juvenile great white sharks.

As we were making plans for her release, our scientific colleagues who've been tagging adult great white sharks near San Francisco Bay made big headlines. Today they published their findings about the lives of the great white population off northern California,.

They documented seasonal migrations between California and Hawaii, and to the "white shark cafe" midway between Baja California and Hawaii. They confirmed that the sharks return with absolute fidelity to their Bay Area feeding grounds each year, and documented that the northern California population is genetically isolated from other great white populations around the world.

We've shared some of these stories with visitors in our Project White Shark program and on our web pages. Now they're reaching a wider audience.

No White Christmas

 

Adieu, adios, farewell, she said. Oh, wait - that was just me; with one last flick of the tail she was gone. Yes, this morning, I let the dog out, and then I let the shark out, figuratively speaking. Today, the young great white shark swims back in the wild again, to find mackerel not hand-delivered on a pole.

In roughly six months we expect her to call home and report where she's been. She's been outfitted with new jewelry (tags) today, that will record her position, depths to which she dives and the temperature of the water she's in - all very valuable data for understanding juvenile great whites. A pop-off tag will send data via satellite, and if we can recover the tag, as we have previously, we can retrieve yet more.

She gained over 20 pounds in two months - which is pretty impressive - and added two inches, making her 5-foot 5-inches. Taller than me, she noted.

 

So, just how do you catch a great white shark and return it to the wild. Carefully! And with great skill. Our husbandry team has done this four times before of course, but there's always room for more adrenalin. Two staff members wait with dip nets for her to swim by. With lightening reflexes, one covers the tail end and the other the bitey end. Once she's enclosed, she can be transferred into one net and lifted. Easy, right? I got tired just watching. She's then transferred into a holding tank, where she can be enclosed in a stretcher, which will be her sling and comfort until she slides back into the Pacific blue.

Once stretchered, she is weighed, then transferred into a transport container which contains super-rich oxygenated water. Amazingly at this point the shark becomes calm and still (after she appropriately gave the husbandry team one last cold shower with a quick tail thrust!) The combination of confinement and oxygenated water has this effect on other sharks too, and tuna too.

Detailed measurements are taken, and photographs, then it's down the elevator and onto Cannery Row where our hoist can lift her transport tank onto a truck. She gets the full tourist experience, down historic Cannery Row and to the wharf. There a hoist transfers her to a waiting boat.

Next it's time for some blood work, and final checks, and it's time to go. As the release site is reached, her satellite and ID tags are fitted, the stretcher is taken to the front of the boat, which has a special bow that lowers (often used to bring gigantic leatherback turtles aboard for tagging). The stretcher is tilted and lowered to the water, and in she goes.

Wow. Pretty amazing. This is always a good day for us. A successful release of an animal back to the wild that will be an important contributor to this population. New research just released reveals there are far less of these sharks than previously thought. Every one counts. Be lucky young girl. Call us in the spring and let us know how you're doing!

Mahi Mayhem

Our great white shark has some new companions in her current temporary home; seven new mahi mahi (dolphin fish) were added last week.

These lively young fish are showing a keen interest in her private dining opportunities.  They are expected to participate in the public feedings (every Tue, Thu, Sat and Sunday at 11 am - check out the webcam for a live view!) So Monday, Wednesday, Friday they are perhaps feeling snubbed that her whiteness gets to chomp on a daily snack, and so they cruise on over to see what's on offer.

These newcomers are really keeping our husbandry staff on their toes as they try to ensure the mackerel goes to the right mouth, or is that the white mouth?

Miss White is spending much more time in the top third of the exhibit these days. So you're much more likely to see her cruise by our webcam. This is the mahi's domain also, so there's a lot to see in the upper viewing window right now.

The mahi are spectacularly colored, with flashes of bright yellows and blues, especially as they get excited and feed. They spent some time in the outdoor holding area, before moving onto exhibit, and I was completely mesmerized by their display as the sunlight pierced the water.

Meanwhile, the young great white continues to feed and thrive and grow. She looks visibly bigger too since she arrived two months ago. All is good!

White Shark: Daily Digest

The love affair continues. We for her, and her for mackerel, forsaking all others. In fact, we're told, she simply spits out anything else. She's like the opposite of the kid who won't eat broccoli. With many of our animals, we offer a fish like mackerel first, as it's a really good place to hide a vitamin or anything else you might need to supplement the food with. Then you offer the good stuff. Miss White wants nothing but the mackerel. Oh, and did I mention, around 3% of her body weight of it?

Around a kilo (2.2 lbs) per day is pretty consistent with her predecessors. We are estimating her weight, in case you are wondering. Unlike our exhibit sea otters, she is not trained to put herself on the scales. She will not be weighed until the day she heads out again into the big blue. Based on the three white sharks we had for several months, we have a pretty good idea of how much weight a juvenile white shark adds for each kilo of food it consumes. This was a total shock to us the first time around, when the young girl added 100 pounds in six months, and had grown to over six feet in length!

Witnessing first hand the growth rate of a juvenile is part of the important science behind having an animal like this on exhibit. Previous estimates of sharks this size in the wild had placed them at 2-3 years of age, but likely this girl was a little over a year at most. This adds to our understanding of juvenile white sharks. Important pieces in a puzzle, that eventually may help scientists know how best to protect nursery areas.

Meanwhile, this young girl continues to feed and grow and do well. She is now consistently feeding toward the center of the exhibit and away from the back wall. Exactly what we were hoping for. In the words of Jon Hoech, Director of Husbandry Operations, "All is good."

Great White Workout!

 
The Great White Friday update reported that her whiteness is eating roughly two percent of her body weight each day in mackerel. What the update doesn't say, is how much effort is required by our husbandry team to feed her. As I witnessed this weekend, it's quite the workout!

If you've watched one of our feeding videos, you'll see that the fish is attached to a piece of cotton on a wooden pole, and dangled in the water. The shark smells the food, comes over and chows down. Pretty simple right? But not with this animal. "She's not like any of the others we've had," says Manny Ezcurra, associate curator of elasmobranches (all things shark-like). I watched as Manny ran from one end of the exhibit to the other, eyeing her as she came to the shallows. Then once she was in sight, Manny would run ahead of her, pulling the mackerel just in front of her through the water. She may feign interest, and then dive, only to appear at the other end of the exhibit, and have Manny skipping toward her, only for her to dive again. "It's like trolling for salmon or tuna," says Manny; pulling a lure through the water to attract a fish. Manny is our human troller!

After 15 minutes, or more, she had eaten only three mackerel. But boy, when she takes them, she gives quite the show. One time she launched vertically, and at least the top third of her body came out of the water. The next time, was more of a sideways breach. "She takes her food enthusiastically," smiles Manny. Apparently not concerned that he's expending almost as much energy as his charge!

We know you're wondering why we don't have photos and video for us to share with you as she feeds. But at this time, she's still not ready for her close up! Our husbandry staff would like her to feed without additional distraction, and would like her to feel comfortable feeding from the center of the exhibit, so that we can use our catwalk. Right now, she's only comfortable at the back - and only when the prey is moving! Maybe this won't change during her stay with us. It's hard to know. After all, this is only the 5th great white to ever feed in a captive setting - the book is still being written.

Red Herrings and White Elephants

The great white shark is now doing so well we only get a weekly update from our husbandry team, unless anything out of the ordinary takes place.

This was not such a week. The Friday update says, the status is quo, mackerel is still the food de jour and all is fine. Makes for a happy husbandry division, but a less exciting blog!

I'd love to tell you tales of extraordinary doings, but the truth is that having a juvenile great white, that feeds every day at our behest, swims calmly and comfortably on exhibit and plays nicely with others, is beyond extraordinary. This being our fifth time, it can be too easy to take it all for granted. And yet, we are doing what no other institution has done, and that's to keep a white shark healthy and fed and in a condition to be returned back to the wild as a viable and vital member of her community.

We make it look easy, no doubt, but since our first successful attempt in 2004, no other facility in the world has attempted to replicate. That surely speaks to the magnitude of what we're doing here.

So if you do get the chance to stop by and say "hi" to her in person, remember that what you are witnessing is no red herring or white elephant. She's the real deal!

White Tag Sale

If you look carefully at the great white shark in our exhibit, you may see evidence of the satellite tag she wore during her stay in our ocean net pen. Had it been appropriate to release her from the pen, we could have done so without recapturing her. The tag was removed for her transfer to the Aquarium, but a new tag will be fitted when she returns to her ocean home.

Finding out where young white sharks go is as important to us as having one on display for a short time. If not more important. For without this information, we cannot hope to inform any policy decisions about the best ways to protect them.

Our juvenile white shark program is a cooperative and collaborative effort with Stanford University (among others). Stanford scientists are also tagging and tracking adult white sharks as part of the Tagging of Pacific Predators program. You can watch near-real time movements of great whites - even become a friend of Omoo, a feisty great white on Facebook, or download his widget and see what he's up to!

On the U.S. east coast this month, scientists tagged two adult great whites for the first time. Although sightings of these big fish are somewhat common on the Atlantic coast, they're not abundant in New England where these sharks were outfitted with their techno-jewelry. Hopefully, they will reveal some secrets of the life of a great white on the eastern seaboard.

There's so much to learn about these large predators. Hard to believe that we can know so little about something so big, and with such a reputation! But one of the world's largest sharks - megamouth - was not even discovered until 1976! It's a big ocean out there.

Vitamin Enriched

One sure way to keep our young great white sharks healthy on exhibit is to offer them vitamins along with the fish we feed them at mealtime.

Now our resident white shark has begun taking her vitamins.

Last Wednesday, our aquarists began adding vitamin supplements to the mackerel and salmon they feed her. The supplements are from a commercial supplier, and they're specially formulated for sharks and rays. It's something we (and other aquariums) commonly use to make sure our exhibit animals get all the water- and fat-soluble vitamins they need for optimal health.

There's a certain irony in giving vitamins to sharks, since shark populations are threatened in the wild because so many have been killed to produce vitamins and supplements for people. Large animals like basking sharks and Greenland sharks were decimated when they were hunted to turn their fatty livers into Vitamin A supplements.

Recently, shark cartilage and other shark byproducts have been touted as potential cancer cures, fueling another spike in the marketing of shark products.

You can take action for sharks in the wild by contacting your U.S. Senators to urge their support for legislation that will close the last loophole in the marketplace that supports shark finning. On a personal level, you can also be sure not to use shark products -- and by spreading the word to friends and family.

The Sound of Silence

Just when you think you're getting to know someone... "No thanks," said the great white shark. "I'm really not hungry today." Salmon, mackerel, pass.

Now remember, this is not your dog or cat, or your Aunt Sue. This is a wild animal that may not find food on a daily basis, or need to eat regularly. So we're not concerned.

We've had other white sharks take a day or two off from the food fest, and then come back for the snack attack.

Her behavior is otherwise completely normal. She just wasn't hungry!

We're really more concerned about what she'll eat out in the wild when she returns in the next weeks/months ahead. With the world's fisheries pretty much at capacity, or overfished to supply we land mammals, there has to be concern about what is left to feed those that can't shop at alternate stores, or eat chicken! But we know you'll be using your Seafood Watch pocket guide to make "Best Choices."

Also of concern is the high levels of PCBs, DDT and other toxins that are accumulating in top predators. Dolphins and killer whales are showing alarming high rates of such contaminants, including the local population of bottlenose dolphin here in Monterey Bay. Seals and sea lions, the favored prey of adult great white sharks, also are testing positive. No one knows what the long term effects might be for these animals at the top of the food chain. But like the proverbial canary in the coal mine, they are telling us that things are amiss, and we need to fix it.

Meanwhile, from the young white shark in our care, just white noise.