Biology Reference
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good to hear that a male and a female from the original sharks that
Blackie, the shark-catching dog, had helped us collect had grown to
maturity and, twenty years later, had reproduced. Successful repro-
duction of elasmobranchs in aquariums has been rare, but it's becom-
ing more and more common as public aquariums build more spacious,
more naturalistic environments for them. I hope the days of keeping
large sharks in small tanks are over. Responsible aquariums no longer
keep sharks they know will grow too big for their facility.
THE GREAT WHITE SHARK EXPERIENCE
Although the daily activities of an aquarist may seem to be fairly pre-
dictable, there are times when a single phone call causes you to drop
whatever you're doing and instantly redirect your energies. One day I
received such a phone call from Pete Halley, descendant of the discoverer
of the comet.
Pete and his brother were commercial halibut gillnetters working out
of the little town of Marshall on Tomales Bay, north of San Francisco.
They'd set their net over a sandy bottom outside the entrance to the
bay and, when pulling it to check their catch, found a young great white
shark that was still very much alive. Through the marine operator they
called Steinhart Aquarium and asked if we were interested in the shark,
and if so, what they should do to keep it alive.
They had no live tank on board, so I suggested that they somehow
get a long line on the shark and tow it slowly back into Tomales Bay,
where we'd meet them at their dock. Aquarist Ed Miller and I dropped
what we were doing and loaded the collecting truck with the largest
fiberglass holding tank we had, six feet by three feet, an oxygen cylin-
der, regulator, oxygen pump, shark stretcher, and hip boots, and we
took o¤ for Marshall.
Three hours later we were met in Marshall by the rather glum-
looking Halley brothers. They said that they'd managed to get a line
on the shark and all went well for a while with the shark swimming
slowly behind the boat on its long leash. At one point, however, the
shark swam under the boat and the line became wrapped in the boat's
propeller. Of course, the boat came to an immediate halt. It took a lit-
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