Monterey Bay Aquarium is reporting that the young great white shark it released on Oct. 25, after 55 days of captivity in the facility’s one-million-gallon Open Sea exhibit, died soon after swimming to freedom.
The 4-foot, 10-inch male shark was turned loose because it had begun navigating strangely in the tank. Scientists said it appeared to be fine at the time of its release, off Goleta. But data retrieved from an tracking tag recovered Sunday revealed that the shark died very quickly after its release. (The tag was designed to pop free if there were no movements after 96 hours.)
“This is a very difficult day for all of us, and for everyone who saw and cared about this animal,” Jon Hoech, the aquarium’s director of husbandry, said in a news release. “Based on the shark’s behavior and condition prior to release, we had every confidence that he’d do well back in the wild. We’re surprised and saddened by the outcome.”
The shark was the sixth kept and ultimately released as part of a vast program that also involves the tagging and releasing of juvenile sharks off Southern California.
The capture-and-display portion of the program is controversial because some believe that profit is the primary motive for keeping a great white in captivity. Millions have visited the facility specifically to view a captive white shark.
The aquarium has defended the program as as a qay to enhance people’s perspectives about white sharks, and teaching visitors about their importance to marine ecosystems.
All but one of the previous five sharks placed in captivity and eventually released survived at least beyond the life of their tags. One of those sharks, however, died four months after its release, in a fisherman’s net off Baja California, Mexico.
Hoech said Wednesday that all procedures and protocols will be reviewed in the wake of the latest sad news.
Photo of young captive white shark in late August is courtesy of ©Monterey Bay Aquarium/Randy Wilder