More on MBA white shark...
May. 17th, 2005 11:36 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
senoritafishReleased great white doing just what the other sharks do
http://www.montereyherald.com/mld/montereyherald/11666455.htm
By KAREN RAVN
Herald Staff Writer
They don't know exactly where she is. But they do know where she's been.
They can't say exactly what she's up to. But they do know what she's been
down to.
She's the great white shark that spent a record 198 days in captivity -- and
captivated nearly a million visitors at the Monterey Bay Aquarium -- before
she went back where she came from on March 31.
Researchers from the aquarium and Stanford University announced Monday that
they've decoded the message she left when she radioed in about two weeks
ago.
"This is an animal that's doing fine, covering ground, making deep dives,"
said Randy Kochevar, a marine biologist with the aquarium. "She's still out
there doing her thing."
Before they released the great white near Point Pinos, researchers fitted
her with a pop-up tag that recorded depth, temperature and light intensity
every 10 seconds. The tag popped off, on schedule, a month later, west of
Point Arguello near Santa Barbara.
Right away it started sending data back, by satellite, to the Tuna Research
and Conservation Center, which is operated jointly by Stanford and the
aquarium.
Now researchers have used the information to track the shark's movements and
learn something about her habits. And everything they've found out is
consistent with patterns shown by other young sharks they've tagged and
tracked, said Kevin Weng, a Stanford researcher -- sharks that had spent
their whole lives in the wild.
In the first month after her release, this great white swam more than 100
miles offshore and more than 500 miles all told. When her tag popped off,
she was close to the southernmost point of her travels and more than 200
miles from the spot where she was let go.
Most of the time the great white hung out near the surface where the water
was about 58 degrees.
Kochevar said scientists aren't sure why, but young white sharks tend to
prefer warm water. A commercial halibut fisherman caught this one in warm
water near Huntington Beach last August.
Since her release back to the wild, however, the shark has sometimes dived
down nearly 820 feet, where temperatures were a chillier 48 degrees.
Researchers can't say for sure what she did when she got there, but they
suspect she was looking for a meal.
"Fish generally dive for one of two reasons," Kochevar said, "to find food
or to not become food themselves. The second seems less likely for a white
shark."
During her stay at the aquarium, the shark swam in water about midway
between the extremes of the ocean temperatures she's been in. But her diving
opportunities were limited since the tank was only 35 feet deep. She didn't
need to hunt, of course, since she was hand-fed there.
The shark never wore out her welcome with aquarium visitors. But by the end
of March, she was getting to be too big a fish in a relatively small pond.
Only 5 feet long and 62 pounds when she arrived, she had grown 16 inches and
more than doubled in weight.
Besides, she'd killed two of her soupfin shark relatives, although
researchers didn't think she really meant to.
The information from the tag is probably the last word anyone will hear from
the famous great white.
But it's not the last word on great whites. This summer, the aquarium will
begin the fourth season of its long-term white shark research program. Along
with its partners at Stanford and California State University at Long Beach,
it will continue DNA sampling and tagging juvenile and adult sharks.
And if and when another fisherman happens to catch another young shark, the
aquarium will gladly take it in and give it a home away from home for a
while.
http://www.montereyherald.com/mld/montereyherald/11666455.htm
By KAREN RAVN
Herald Staff Writer
They don't know exactly where she is. But they do know where she's been.
They can't say exactly what she's up to. But they do know what she's been
down to.
She's the great white shark that spent a record 198 days in captivity -- and
captivated nearly a million visitors at the Monterey Bay Aquarium -- before
she went back where she came from on March 31.
Researchers from the aquarium and Stanford University announced Monday that
they've decoded the message she left when she radioed in about two weeks
ago.
"This is an animal that's doing fine, covering ground, making deep dives,"
said Randy Kochevar, a marine biologist with the aquarium. "She's still out
there doing her thing."
Before they released the great white near Point Pinos, researchers fitted
her with a pop-up tag that recorded depth, temperature and light intensity
every 10 seconds. The tag popped off, on schedule, a month later, west of
Point Arguello near Santa Barbara.
Right away it started sending data back, by satellite, to the Tuna Research
and Conservation Center, which is operated jointly by Stanford and the
aquarium.
Now researchers have used the information to track the shark's movements and
learn something about her habits. And everything they've found out is
consistent with patterns shown by other young sharks they've tagged and
tracked, said Kevin Weng, a Stanford researcher -- sharks that had spent
their whole lives in the wild.
In the first month after her release, this great white swam more than 100
miles offshore and more than 500 miles all told. When her tag popped off,
she was close to the southernmost point of her travels and more than 200
miles from the spot where she was let go.
Most of the time the great white hung out near the surface where the water
was about 58 degrees.
Kochevar said scientists aren't sure why, but young white sharks tend to
prefer warm water. A commercial halibut fisherman caught this one in warm
water near Huntington Beach last August.
Since her release back to the wild, however, the shark has sometimes dived
down nearly 820 feet, where temperatures were a chillier 48 degrees.
Researchers can't say for sure what she did when she got there, but they
suspect she was looking for a meal.
"Fish generally dive for one of two reasons," Kochevar said, "to find food
or to not become food themselves. The second seems less likely for a white
shark."
During her stay at the aquarium, the shark swam in water about midway
between the extremes of the ocean temperatures she's been in. But her diving
opportunities were limited since the tank was only 35 feet deep. She didn't
need to hunt, of course, since she was hand-fed there.
The shark never wore out her welcome with aquarium visitors. But by the end
of March, she was getting to be too big a fish in a relatively small pond.
Only 5 feet long and 62 pounds when she arrived, she had grown 16 inches and
more than doubled in weight.
Besides, she'd killed two of her soupfin shark relatives, although
researchers didn't think she really meant to.
The information from the tag is probably the last word anyone will hear from
the famous great white.
But it's not the last word on great whites. This summer, the aquarium will
begin the fourth season of its long-term white shark research program. Along
with its partners at Stanford and California State University at Long Beach,
it will continue DNA sampling and tagging juvenile and adult sharks.
And if and when another fisherman happens to catch another young shark, the
aquarium will gladly take it in and give it a home away from home for a
while.
