Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Goodbye Great White

[Originally posted to MBA Student Oceanography Club (SOC)]

White Shark

The aquarium recently released the captive white shark that had been on display, but don't shed too many tears for her. As sad as it is to see her go, just think that now she can roam the entire Pacific, perhaps taking a much needed vacation to Hawaii before coming back to visit our local beaches again. At least that is what researchers have found that many other great whites have done:




  • http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/03/AR200911...

  • Researchers at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, Stanford University, and other organizations have been tracking these sharks for a decade now, and have found that great whites travel widely, but regularly return to our coast. Even so, the recently released shark will still regularly call to let us know how she's doing. For example, a couple of weeks ago she let us know that she was visiting the Monterey Canyon:




  • http://montereybayaquarium.typepad.com/sea_notes/2009/11/white-peacock.html

  • If you want to follow the latest news on the tagged great whites (or tuna, turtles, marine mammals or other pelagic predators for that matter), check out the Tagging of Pacific Predators web site:




  • http://www.topp.org/species/white_shark

  • Click on the "Near real-time tracking" button on the map to see where different animals are located. Our girl is listed under "Juvenile White Shark" with the ptt # 95118 and TOPP ID # 3309004. She is currently hanging out with the surfers near Santa Barbara.