Community Corner

Young Great White Shark Caught Off Marina del Rey Returns to Wild

A young great white shark collected just off the breakwater in Marina del Rey has been returned to the wild after a 55-day stay at the Monterey Bay Aquarium's Open Sea exhibit.

A young great white shark collected in the waters near Marina del Rey in August was released back into the wild Tuesday by a team with the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

The shark was released about 1 p.m. roughly two miles offshore of the Goleta pier north of Santa Barbara, aquarium officials said in a statement.

“The transport and release went very well. The shark swam off looking strong, and very relaxed as he swam. He circled the boat a couple of times and then we lost sight of him," said Manny Ezcurra, the aquarium's associate curator of sharks.

The 4-foot-7-inch, 43-pound shark was spotted Aug. 18 just off the Marina del Rey breakwater and was collected by aquarium staff based out of Marina del Rey with the help of a commercial fishing crew using a purse seine net. The shark stayed at a 4-million-gallon ocean holding pen off Malibu for about two weeks before it was transferred up north to the aquarium's Open Sea exhibit.

The shark gained almost nine pounds and grew two inches during its 55-day stay on exhibit.

Find out what's happening in Marina Del Reywith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The shark was released Tuesday with two electronic tags, which was a first for the aquarium's research program. One tag will track the great white shark's movement in the wild for the next 180 days, then it will pop up to the ocean's surface and transmit its data via satellite.

A second tag was implanted by Chris Lowe with the Shark Lab at California State University, Long Beach. The acoustic tag has a five-year battery that will report each time the shark swims past a network of monitoring buoys in Southern California and Baja California.

Find out what's happening in Marina Del Reywith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Aquarium officials said they hope the data will provide information about the shark's travel pattern as it matures. The information could help wildlife agencies protect young great white sharks where they spend their early years.

Since 2002, the aquarium and its research partners have placed 46 tracking tags and eight acoustic tags on young great whites, including the two placed Tuesday on the shark.

The young shark was the sixth to go on exhibit at the million-gallon Open Sea exhibit at the aquarium. The Monterey Bay Aquarium is the only one in the world to exhibit a great white shark for more than 16 days and has successfully returned each great white shark to the wild. The previous five great white sharks on display at the aquarium had stays ranging from 11 days to 169 days.

Great white sharks are in decline worldwide, in part because they're slow to reproduce, but also because of growing fishing pressure that is lowering the number of all shark species. White sharks are protected in California and other U.S. coastal waters, as well as in South Africa, Australia, Mexico and other countries.

The attached video clip shows the shark Monday during its last day in the Open Sea exhibit.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here