Malibu Great White Shark Is Released from Captivity

• Aquarium Says Shark Was Showing Signs of Stressful Behavior •

BY ANNE SOBLE

For the third time in four years, staffers of the Monterey Bay Aquarium bid farewell to a young white shark after it spent time on public display. The male great white was released in Monterey Bay on Tuesday five months after it was first placed in MBA’s million-gallon Outer Bay exhibit.
The shark is fitted with two electronic tags: one that will relay near real-time data about his travels for about eight months, and a second device that will collect detailed information on his general movements for the next five months.
Data from the second tag, documenting where the shark goes, how deep it dives and the water temperatures that it favors, will be relayed to scientists via satellite when the tag pops free in early July.
The shark was captured just north of Malibu by a sea bass fisherman last August and spent three weeks in MBA’s ocean holding pen off Point Dume. When transported to the aquarium facility on Aug. 28, the shark was 4-foot, 9-inches and weighed about 67 pounds. At its release, it was 5-foot, 10-inches and 140 pounds.
This is the third shark to be exhibited and returned to the wild. The first shark, a female, was at the aquarium for 198 days in 2004-2005. The second shark, a male, was on exhibit for 137 days. The latest male white was seen by more than 650,000 people during its 162 days on exhibit, according to MBA spokespersons.
The first two animals were successfully returned to the wild, and their tracking tags transmitted extensive behavioral data. MBA staffers anticipate similar success with the third shark and anticipate the collection of additional valuable information that will add to current knowledge about great white sharks.
Scientists also have tagged another 10 young sharks in the wild in Southern California waters as part of the white shark field project that also supports research to track the migrations of adult whites that have been tagged off the Farallon Islands and Point Año Nuevo on California’s central coast.
MBA will begin its seventh field season of white shark research this summer, and plans to set up its ocean holding pen off Malibu in an attempt to capture another animal for exhibit.

Photo/Monterey Bay Aquarium
FREEDOM—The white shark is lowered into the ocean in a sling by staffers of the Monterey Bay Aquarium on Tuesday just after sunrise. The male shark’s five-month stint in MBA’s million-gallon Outer Bay exhibit was ended when the animal began leaping into the air and aquarium staff were concerned that there was the “risk of injury.” When the shark arrived in August 2007, it was 4-foot, 9-inches and weighed 67 pounds. It is now 5-foot, 10-inches and 140 pounds, the size of an adult human.

Photo/Monterey Bay Aquarium
DATA—The young male white has been fitted with an electronic tag that will relay near real-time data about its travels for about eight months. A second tag will collect data for the Tagging of Pacific Predators Website, www.topp.org, that will document where the shark goes, how deep it dives and the water temperatures that it favors for five months before the tag pops off in early July.