Shark Ray Gets Valentine

February 2, 2007

Release from: Jim Knippenberg
Cincinnati Enquirer (Ohio)

Chalk up another first for the Newport Aquarium. It has acquired a rare male shark ray as a companion for the female Sweet Pea (the first shark ray exhibited in the Americas).

Newport is the only aquarium in the Western Hemisphere with a breeding pair, and one of only two in this country to exhibit shark rays (the Long Beach, Calif., Aquarium is the other).

The happy couple will meet for the first time on Valentine's Day, when the aquarium launches the world's first shark ray breeding program.

After that, the next step is a baby.

"We're hoping for a love connection right here in our tank," said Jill Isaacs, aquarium spokeswoman.

The breeding program is important, she said, because the shark ray is on the World Conservation Union's Red List of Threatened Species.

That means the population is critically low."Threatened" is the last step before endangered, which is the last step before extinction.

The new male, acquired from Taiwan fish procurement specialist and conservationist Fred Fan, is cooling his fin in an acclimation tank (part quarantine to make sure he's not carrying anything, part introduction to new surroundings) before he joins Sweet Pea in the 385,000-gallon "Surrounded by Sharks" exhibit.

Like all shark rays, the new guy has a prehistoric look with horn-like ridges along the head and back, a dorsal fin and rounded underside.

Making shark ray babies is a challenge, said Mark Dvornak, aquarium aquatics curator and a veteran of shark ray husbandry from his days working in Kuwait's National Public Aquarium.

There has never been a male-female pair together in captivity, so no one's sure how they interact.

"We don't know much, so we'll observe and document,'' Dvornak said. "With some sharks, you have to physically change the environment before they'll breed. We don't know if that's true with the shark ray or not.

"There's no timetable for the breeding. It could happen overnight or it could take a couple of years.''

For now, the plan is to open the breeding program with observation, documentation and study, all designed to shed light on their shadowy underwater world.

If the sharks haven't mated by the end of that period, the aquarium team will begin work on the next step.

It is believed that shark rays produce offspring by copulating and that the female carries the babies inside, unlike most female fish which release eggs that may or may not then be fertilized by a male swimming by.

The commitment to the breeding program is for at least 12 years so keepers can learn how shark rays interact and what it takes to get them breeding.

It's all about learning, said Thane Maynard, interim director of the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden.

"Captive breeding is important, certainly for the long-term viability of zoos and aquariums, but also for conservation projects and the future of a given species. Equally important is the leaning curve we see by observing animals rarely exhibited in public, especially so many fish species.

"There's so much no one knows that a program like this one can have huge benefits."

The shark ray is on the threatened list, Dvornak said, partly because it's so rare and partly because it's in tremendous demand in Asia, where shark fin soup is a prized delicacy.

For now, the new male has no name. He'll get one in coming weeks when the public's verdict comes in from the Aquarium's name-the-shark contest.