Shark Watch: Ethical Issues Arise As Crowds Swarm To Monterey Aquarium

September 23, 2004

Release from: Blair Anthony Robertson
Sacramento Bee (California)

MONTEREY - The star attraction here is an anonymous single white female with a storied past.

People line up to gawk. They skip classes and cut out of work early. They stand shoulder to shoulder and talk about this one-of-a-kind phenomenon and how history suggests her days may be numbered.

They note her beauty, the impressive lines of a body built for speed and power and perfected over centuries.

When she passes by with that certain air of insouciance, the flashbulbs light up. She doesn't blink or flinch.

And never does she give the impression she wants to bite anybody's head off.

This is the great white hope of the Monterey Bay Aquarium, a young white shark swimming behind glass 13 inches thick for all the world to see. For a $19.95 adult admission, it's the closest thing most people will ever come to a real-life "Jaws" experience.

No white shark - or great white shark as it is popularly known - has ever fed in captivity or survived longer than 16 days, which explains why people have been rushing for a glimpse.

As that milestone approaches here, the shark's caretakers are excited and nervous, watching her around the clock and celebrating every time she chomps down on a salmon filet dangled in front of her from a rope on a stick.

This shark is seemingly all things to all people. A scientific opportunity. A box office sensation. A media darling. To some in the animal rights community, she's yet another exploited animal trapped in a cage.

The issue spans the spectrum of animal ethics. Knowing that such sharks haven't survived captivity, is it fair to keep this one until it thrives or succumbs? Do many more sharks benefit if this one can help experts solve some of the scientific mysteries?

When is the experiment a success or failure? When it outgrows the aquarium? Devours all of its playmates? When it is found floating upside down in the tank?

Michael Murray, the aquarium's veterinarian, says the facility has a plan to return the shark to the wild at the slightest suggestion the experiment is not working. The shark could begin hitting the aquarium's walls. She could stop eating. Her color, her posture and the pace of her beating tail could change.

During a visit Tuesday - Day 8 on the shark watch - all signs were pointing to success.

Aquarium employees are chipping in to watch the creature, signing up for three-hour stints to observe her round the clock.

"It's nerve-racking. It's needing to be ready for whatever happens," said Randall Kochevar, the aquarium's science communications manager.

He noted the aquarium's gill shark once got too large for the exhibit. It was returned to the ocean off Humboldt County and apparently thrived for a few years before it was caught - and killed - by commercial fishermen.

The white shark nearly met the same fate. She was trapped in a halibut fishing net off the coast of Huntington Beach on Aug. 20 and kept in a 4 million-gallon ocean pen until transported to Monterey. The aquarium had put the word out that it was interested in acquiring one of the white sharks that often are caught accidentally in gill nets.

News of her first feeding had shark advocates and experts buzzing throughout the country. There is no other white shark currently in captivity.

"I commend Monterey for their efforts," said Bert Vescolani, a senior official at the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago. "They have an amazing history of exceptional animal care ... I'm a firm believer that people connect to live animals in ways you can't replicate on videotape or computer. In a zoological setting, you have the opportunity to see these animals up close for the first time."

John McCosker, former director of San Francisco's Steinhart Aquarium, presided over a failed white shark effort in 1980. The aquarium released its white shark after it had trouble navigating the tank and it seemed clear it would not survive after four days in captivity.

"I have thought long and hard about this. My view has always been that if we can't keep animals alive and well they shouldn't be kept at all," he said. "On behalf of sharks, there should be no mysteries or no mythologies. The more we know, the safer we will be and the safer they will be."

But Lisa Wathne, a captive animal specialist with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, was appalled to learn of the exhibit. The only solution, she says, is to release the shark.

"Here you have an animal who has experienced its natural home. To then be plopped into basically a bathtub has to be incredibly difficult and stressful," Wathne said. "They are deprived of everything that is natural to them. ... There is ample evidence that captivity does not help preserve species. The best example of that is elephants."

Wathne says the aquarium's major motivation is not animal welfare but money.

"When you go to places like this, you are supporting animal abuse," she said. "The best thing to do is stay away."

But people are flocking to the exhibit, crowding the darkened viewing area at "The Outer Bay" tank for a glimpse of the shark as it swims in a tank with other fish, from barracuda to tuna. A typical weekend this time of year draws about 5,000 visitors per day. With the white shark on the premises, attendance is up to 8,000 or more.

Despite the fanfare, aquarium officials have been careful not to give the white shark a name. They want visitors to see her not as a pet or novelty but as the wild creature she is. They also want to play a role in reducing fear or hatred of sharks and thereby attract advocates to saving them from slaughter in the wild.

Yet, the aquarium is not above hyping its prized possession - or making money from shark hysteria in general. The woman on the loudspeaker at "The Outer Bay" refers to the animal as the great white shark, even though experts like to call it by its commonly accepted name, the white shark.

At the gift shop, visitors can buy everything from books and videos on sharks and shark attacks to T-shirts and stuffed animals and shark key chains.

"Man, they got all this 'great white' stuff," said Rachel Wall, eyeing the display table.

"Didn't take them long," replied her friend, Danica Ludwig.

But the two 19-year-old students at California State University, Monterey Bay, are not entirely above the fray themselves.

"We ditched class to see the shark," said Wall. "Everybody is saying they don't last more than 16 days in captivity."

"I thought it was cute," added Ludwig, "though it was smaller than I thought it would be."

The young shark, barely 4 feet long, can't keep pace with her growing reputation. At maturity, white sharks can be more than 20 feet long and weigh more than three tons.

As of Friday, crowds were still large and officials said it was too soon to panic when the shark turned down the salmon fillet dangling in front of her.