Heehee, it's so true....
Nov. 6th, 2003 02:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
senoritafish(I used to run the Department's shark tagging program. The guy who sent this ran it after me.)
Received from a colleague:
From the Torrance Daily Breeze:
Aquarium's shark tracking device in the bag - in Redondo Beach
http://www.dailybreeze.com/content/news/nmpshark6.html
Thursday, November 06, 2003
By Josh Grossberg
DAILY BREEZE
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
They searched high, they searched low. Then Monterey Bay Aquarium sent out media alerts and offered rewards to find a shark tag that went missing early last month in the waters off the South Bay.
If only they had looked inside Alison and Case Spencer's diaper bag.
That's where it's been sitting since Case Spencer found the device near the Manhattan Beach Pier at the end of September.
"I knew it was one of those tags," said Case Spencer of Redondo Beach, who found the tag while walking home from his job as an engineer at the Hyperion Treatment Plant. "I intended to call them that night, but I've got two little kids and we're really busy with them."
The children, 22-month-old Casey and 3-month-old Summer, are both in diapers, which makes the parents' decision to toss the probe in the diaper bag seem reasonable enough.
"I met my wife for dinner along the beach," he said. "She had the babies with her, so I put it in the bottom of the baby thing."
And then, unaware of the $500 reward, the couple put the bag into the trunk of their car and promptly forgot about it.
The microphone-shaped, 7-inch tag broke loose from a white shark and last sent a signal in early October. The aquarium received a few strange beeps from the device since then, but they didn't last long enough to track it.
"It was encouraging to get the signal, but it was puzzling as to what happened," said aquarium spokesman Ken Peterson. "There were these ghost signals from the middle of town. Maybe they opened the trunk when the satellite passed over. It was confusing."
The tag was attached to the 5-foot shark, which was accidentally captured by a fisherman off Ventura County. Peterson said researchers know little about the habits of white sharks, so they attached the tag to monitor the shark's movements. The device was programmed to break free after two months and bob to the surface.
It worked according to plan, but its developers didn't take into account the lives of two overworked parents.
"It just slipped our minds," Alison Spencer said. "Terrible, huh? We've just been really busy lately."
But on Monday, Case got to thinking about it and contacted the aquarium. Thinking there would be maybe a $5 reward, he was surprised to learn that it was 100 times that much.
"We think we may take a trip to the aquarium," he said. "They included free passes for us. We think it may be time to take a trip up the coast."
Received from a colleague:
"Don't know if you saw this, but it was too good not to pass along. Being an expectant father puts it into real perspective..."
From the Torrance Daily Breeze:
Aquarium's shark tracking device in the bag - in Redondo Beach
http://www.dailybreeze.com/content/news/nmpshark6.html
Thursday, November 06, 2003
By Josh Grossberg
DAILY BREEZE
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
They searched high, they searched low. Then Monterey Bay Aquarium sent out media alerts and offered rewards to find a shark tag that went missing early last month in the waters off the South Bay.
If only they had looked inside Alison and Case Spencer's diaper bag.
That's where it's been sitting since Case Spencer found the device near the Manhattan Beach Pier at the end of September.
"I knew it was one of those tags," said Case Spencer of Redondo Beach, who found the tag while walking home from his job as an engineer at the Hyperion Treatment Plant. "I intended to call them that night, but I've got two little kids and we're really busy with them."
The children, 22-month-old Casey and 3-month-old Summer, are both in diapers, which makes the parents' decision to toss the probe in the diaper bag seem reasonable enough.
"I met my wife for dinner along the beach," he said. "She had the babies with her, so I put it in the bottom of the baby thing."
And then, unaware of the $500 reward, the couple put the bag into the trunk of their car and promptly forgot about it.
The microphone-shaped, 7-inch tag broke loose from a white shark and last sent a signal in early October. The aquarium received a few strange beeps from the device since then, but they didn't last long enough to track it.
"It was encouraging to get the signal, but it was puzzling as to what happened," said aquarium spokesman Ken Peterson. "There were these ghost signals from the middle of town. Maybe they opened the trunk when the satellite passed over. It was confusing."
The tag was attached to the 5-foot shark, which was accidentally captured by a fisherman off Ventura County. Peterson said researchers know little about the habits of white sharks, so they attached the tag to monitor the shark's movements. The device was programmed to break free after two months and bob to the surface.
It worked according to plan, but its developers didn't take into account the lives of two overworked parents.
"It just slipped our minds," Alison Spencer said. "Terrible, huh? We've just been really busy lately."
But on Monday, Case got to thinking about it and contacted the aquarium. Thinking there would be maybe a $5 reward, he was surprised to learn that it was 100 times that much.
"We think we may take a trip to the aquarium," he said. "They included free passes for us. We think it may be time to take a trip up the coast."
