Collecting the fish - A Fascination for Fish: Adventures of an Underwater Pioneer - page 232

but the shark repeatedly turned away and swam around it. All other
attempts likewise failed. Mark Shelley came over from Sea Studios and
took some excellent underwater video of the shark, and we continued
with our regular maintenance duties, cleaning the windows of the ex-
hibit and siphoning debris from the bottom.
I recall one day when I had siphoning duty. I was impressed by how
alert the shark seemed as it cruised by, looking right at me. It was so
di¤erent from the brain-dead white shark we'd had at Steinhart. This
truly was a beautiful and awesome creature. In spite of its small size—
less than five feet long—there was a presence about it that emanated
power and grace. It gave me the same kind of feeling I have in the pres-
ence of a terrestrial equivalent, the Bengal tiger.
The white shark swimming so close by triggered very interesting be-
havior on the part of the four sevengills, all of which were larger than
the white: although their normal swimming pattern utilized the entire
exhibit, when the white shark was added, they moved to the deep end
of the tank and stayed there. It was also strange that none of the smaller
fishes, all potential food for a great white shark, showed any notice-
able change in behavior.
On the eleventh day the white shark became disoriented, got stuck
behind the wharf pilings, and died. Our conclusion was that, having
refused all food, it had simply used up its limited energy reserves. Young
great whites may have a higher metabolic rate than large adults and
are probably not able to store as much energy. As a result, they may
require more food more frequently. Warm blooded, like tuna and their
relative the mako shark, they must continually lose body heat to the
cold water. The young sharks have a higher surface-to-mass ratio than
do the massive adults, which probably explains why they are normally
born in southern California and Baja, where the water temperature is
warmer. In normal-temperature years, only the large adults venture
north into the cold water of central California, to feed on energy-rich
elephant seals. Our shark was captured at the height of an unusually
warm El Niño period, o¤ Bodega Bay, far to the north of the normal
range of a young great white. To maintain their internal temperature
young sharks must need to eat frequently, but it's a mystery why ours
refused all the food we o¤ered it.