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U.S.: Aquarium Research Project Aims to Study and Display White Sharks |
| June 18, 2004 |
Source: Vancouver Aquarium Marine Science Centre
By Andy Torr, AquaNews Staff Writer
 | White sharks, one of the ocean's most important predators, are in serious decline as a result of human activities.
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Researchers from the Monterey Bay Aquarium will this week begin a third season studying young white sharks off the coast of Southern California. Their goal this season: to tag, track and perhaps collect for display one of the ocean’s most remarkable predators.
“We believe a white shark can be an incredible ambassador for the oceans,” said Dr. Randy Kochevar, science communications manager with the Monterey Bay Aquarium. “We know that seeing living animals makes people much more receptive to learning about the threats they face. White sharks are under siege, and this is an opportunity to engage the public in shark conservation.”
Past Successes
The research project hopes to answer basic questions about the lives of so-called “young of the year” white sharks – that is, newborns that frequently turn up in sport and commercial fishing gear. An Aquarium field team will collect healthy sharks caught accidentally in commercial fishing gear, and will use an ocean pen to hold any young shark that might be a candidate for display at the Aquarium.
“We won’t make an attempt until we have success in the field, but ultimately we’ll have to put a shark in the Outer Bay to confirm that it can thrive here,” he added. “We’re encouraged by what we learned last year. It tells me that our slow, methodical approach is the right way to go.”
In August 2003, Aquarium biologists held a young shark in an ocean pen for five days. Before returning the shark to the wild at the end of the field season, the researchers were able to successfully feed it. According to John O’Sullivan, curator of field operations at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, stabilizing a shark in a pen and getting it to feed are critical steps before there would be any thought about bringing a white shark back to the Aquarium for display.
Following the release, an electronic tag recorded the shark’s movements for 60 days before it popped free and was found by a beachcomber.
Top Predators
White sharks are a protected species in California, a top predator vital to the health of ocean ecosystems. Globally, their numbers are in steep decline because they are slow to reproduce, they are caught accidentally in sport and commercial fishing gear, and because they are a target of trophy hunters. They have been proposed for protection under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).
Southern California is believed to be a nursery area for white sharks, but little else is known about their lives. The three-year field study could help answer questions about the biology of young white sharks, what they eat, where they travel, and how long they stay in the region.
Electronic tags placed on sharks can record their movements, diving depths, even the water temperatures they prefer. According to data from the tags, sharks tagged in 2003 as part of the project traveled to Baja California and dove as deep as 1,000 feet.
In addition to tagging young white sharks, scientists from the Tuna Research and Conservation Center (TRCC), a collaboration between the Monterey Bay Aquarium and Stanford University, are tagging adult white sharks at the Farallon Islands off San Francisco. Tagged adults have turned up as far west as Hawai’i, revealing that white sharks make long-distance oceanic migrations
TRCC researchers are also tagging other sharks in the North Pacific as part of a multi-year, multi-institution collaboration called Tagging of Pacific Pelagics.
“We’re beginning to shed some light on what these animals are doing,” said Dr. Randy Kochevar. “Until now, their lives have been a great mystery.”
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