Catch Adds To Knowledge Of Great Whites

September 5, 2007

Release from: Scott Hadly
Ventura County Star

Most of the time, marine biologists rely on hard data for their research, but when Ben Henke says "it feels sharky" they tend to listen.

"I call him regularly," said John O'Sullivan, who manages the White Shark Project for the Monterey Bay Aquarium. "He'll tell me, I haven't got one yet, but it feels sharky,' and sure enough a week or 10 days later he's got one."

Henke, a 79-year-old commercial fisherman who began hauling in nets off the coast of Ventura at 17, caught a young great white shark while fishing for sea bass about three miles off Ventura in early August.

He wasn't hunting great white, but the juvenile shark wound up in his net. He kept the 4-foot 9-inch long male shark alive in a large tank on board his boat, The Rincon, and rushed the fish to an enclosure in the water off Point Dume in Malibu.

"It was a really strong one," said Henke, after a day of fishing last week. "He was in good shape."

The shark wound up in a 1.3 million gallon tank at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, just the third great white taken in by the aquarium since 2004. The first young shark attracted a million visitors during a 6 1/2-month stay.

Both of the first two sharks were tagged and released. They were an enormous help for scientists like O'Sullivan in their efforts to learn more about the shark's life cycle, breeding habits and range.

Researchers study the predators and fine-tune the delicate operation of keeping the young great whites alive when in captivity.

Seldom-mentioned alliance

While Henke's little shark stole the national spotlight — the San Francisco Chronicle mentioned how cute it looked, ignoring its Mack-the-Knife-like pearly whites — the shark's capture also illustrates a tentative alliance among commercial fishermen, scientists and some conservationists. This is not entirely new, but it's not mentioned much.

"I have tremendous respect for fishermen and for Ben in particular," said O'Sullivan, who added that some fishermen have felt like the information they've freely given to researchers has sometimes been "used against them" in formulating regulation.

Now working with a select group of fishermen, O'Sullivan said scientists with his White Shark Project and scientists from Stanford have been able to tag more than 100 great white sharks off the Central Coast of California. They've learned a bit about the shark's range and seen intriguing behavior that begs more research.

Possible breeding area found

Last year, when a shark researcher wrote a paper on a largely desolate area of the ocean between California and Hawaii where great whites congregate, he dubbed it the Great White Cafe. Some speculate that adult sharks might go there to breed.

Ralph Collier, who with his Shark Research Committee has been studying the creatures since 1962 and has compiled a hundred years of shark "interactions" with humans, said he's learned more from Henke than any book.

"He's out there every day, sometimes 12 to 14 hours a day," said Collier. "You can't beat that kind of experience."

Collier, who is based in Canoga Park, said he first began seeking out Henke in the early 1970s.

During those years, if the veteran fisherman accidentally netted a great white he made sure to release it if it was still alive.

If it died in the net, he'd preserve the body for research, Collier said.

"And over the years because of Ben we learned that juveniles pupped in Southern California waters for a number of different reasons," said Collier.

Henke said he's had years where he'd haul in as many as five juvenile great white sharks. And years where he'd catch none.

He said he believes the numbers fluctuate with the temperature of the water. Slightly counterintuitive for people who believe great whites are only in the colder waters of Northern California, Henke said he's noticed that when the water off Ventura warms up to 65 to 70 degrees he sees more juvenile sharks.

During the extended El Niño years of the 1980s, when waters offshore were some of the warmest on record, Henke caught a lot of sharks.

Scientists say Henke is right.

Young sharks prefer warmer water because they have yet to develop large livers. Great whites store energy in the form of oil in their livers, much like humans store energy in the form of fat, said Collier.

Pups' might seek grunion

Juvenile sharks also have different eating patterns. For instance, a 4-foot shark can't take down a sea lion like its adult counterpart, said Collier. He believes some of the white shark "pups" tend to congregate around beaches where grunion hatch in Southern California. The sharks can cruise along the surfline during the night grunion runs and quickly eat their fill, he said.

Sharks, and particularly great white sharks, are part of the collective human conscious, said Collier, triggering both fear and fascination.

Much of that fear is unfounded, he points out. A person is more likely to die commuting to work or from a bee sting than from an attack by a great white. But the primal fear of being eaten by a creature from the deep is hard to shake, said Collier.

Henke is unfazed. He's caught his share of sharks and is more fascinated than fearful. "There's a lot of them out there," he said.