New Great White at MBA

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
Cool! Hopefully this one does better than the last. He didn't look too happy when we were there shortly before they released him. The first one seemed to do really well and was actually caught hunting down and killing other sharks in this display.
 
I will just fill some of you in before this takes off and people are confused or run with wrong information. First of all, yes we just recently (2 days ago, Aug. 28th, 2007) placed our 3rd "publically displayed" white shark on exhibit. I quote "publically displayed" because I want to emphasize, as I have before, that this is not our 3rd white shark ever kept or studied in captivity, but merely the 3rd we've moved to public exhibition. Moving on, just as most of ours are, he was caught as accidental by-catch (as is common with the local commercial fishing industry) , and donated to our facility still alive and in good condition. He was placed into our open water holding pen in southern california and assesed by several of our biologists and researchers, before the decision was made to transport him to the aquarium. Upon their reports of strong vitality and navigational progress as well as a stable metabolic evidence (he wanted to eat), they decided to move him to the facility. After our general tests and recordings (length, weight, blood, physical markings, sexing, etc) were done, he was placed into our Outer Bay exhibit which is approx. 1,200,000 gallons, and is the home of several other species including our Yellow Fin Tuna, Soupin's, Hammers, Barracuda's, Sunfish, and more. Upon our initial measurments, he was recorded as being 4 feet and 9 inches (approx), and weighing in at just under 67 1/2 pounds. He is scheduled for secondary tests/measurments soon and I can fill you in on those at a later date. When it comes to keeping white sharks in captivity, it has been tried several times, though none would I (IMO) consider the many attempts as being "sucessful" - mainly because the health and overall well being of the animal was sacraficed. The two that we displayed before were not at all "doing well" as someone stated, but rather suffering at a slower rate. I will not discount any of the staff, for we did our best, however some of the decision making power was not ours, and I feel that may have been another factor for decline. Our "worst to date" experience when it came to steady decline, is below, and I commented extensively on the matter in that thread -

http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=37266&highlight=monterey+bay
 
When it comes to keeping white sharks in captivity, it has been tried several times, though none would I (IMO) consider the many attempts as being "sucessful" - mainly because the health and overall well being of the animal was sacraficed.
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I fully understand what you mean - Emi. Speaking in terms of long term captivity & maintaining excellent health - no one has had "successes" in keeping Great Whites. But as you well know, MBA is the only aquarium that has ever kept a Great White in captivity (Public Display) longer than 1 month. So in that respect - the MBA is the only one that has ever had any real "success" with Great Whites. And when keeping a difficult species - any small success is a major achivement.

Plus Keeping the Great Whites - 1.) raises public awareness of this beautiful shark. 2.) increases knowledge about this shark. 3.) increase funding to help study & protect the species.

So it for the greater good.

But still - I tend to highly Doubt that - anyone will ever keep a Great White in captivity for more than a year or so. Keeping one in captivity for it's entire life is a virtual impossibility - IMO. Unless someone builds an aquarium that at least 10 times larger than the Atlanta Aquarium, and then finds a way to feed it whale & seal meat. Plus who would be brave enough to clean the tank, with an adult Great White in it?
 
Brenden;1097638; said:
I have kept a Great White Pup in my 50 gallons for 5 days once, problem was it was a plush toy does that count? Hahaha, Em time for pictures.
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LOL hmmm not sure that counts Brenden, LOL. And yes yes, I will have to bring my camera to work and get some new shots for you all.
 
Thanks Emi for all the information. I was there shortly before the male was released and he really didn't look comfortable in the tank and his nose was obviously worn. I was rather disappointed actually. I hope things go better with this one.
 
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