Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
THE GREAT WHITE SHARK ENIGMA
The great white shark is one of the few top predators in this world
that has little fear of being eaten. In that respect it's like the orca
and tiger shark, or the big cats of the terrestrial world. Unlike these
other top predators, however, the white shark has never been suc-
cessfully kept in captivity.
Adult white sharks have been virtually impossible to capture
and keep alive for a simple reason: their huge size. Juveniles of
more manageable dimensions are only occasionally seen, and their
capture has almost always been a matter of chance, typically oc-
curring when a commercial fisherman finds a live one entangled
in his net and calls an aquarium. Often by the time the aquarium
sta¤ have reached the capture site and then transported the shark
back to the aquarium, it's in pretty bad shape. Because white sharks
are ram ventilators and in the ocean must swim to pass water over
their gills, their poor condition is usually the result of lack of oxy-
gen during the time they were immobilized in the net.
In spite of these problems, young white sharks have occasion-
ally been brought back to aquariums or oceanariums in good con-
dition. They have looked good and behaved well, maneuvering
actively and accurately around their tank, obviously alert to their
surroundings. Based on criteria we use to judge other shark species,
they should have survived and thrived. Yet despite their healthy
appearance, in each case something was obviously wrong, because
none of these sharks fed and all died, apparently from lack of food,
after relatively few days.
I've had two white sharks that looked as if they would do
fine. The first one, at Sea World, lived eight days, and the second,
at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, lived eleven days. After I left
Sea World, the sta¤ there worked with three or four apparently
healthy ones; one of these was force-fed mackerel and it lived
sixteen days, the longest any young white shark has survived in
an aquarium. At Steinhart Aquarium, John McCosker had one
in the Fish Roundabout that initially appeared to be in good con-
Search WWH ::
Custom Search