Coughdrop12
New Member
I finally decided to create an account! Hello everyone! I have been a public (and home) aquarium fanatic for as long as I can remember, and I feel honored to join this community! I thought there couldn’t be a better way to start off than to share some fascinating (albeit somewhat sad) footage I recently tracked down of some rare pelagic sharks at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, summarize my findings, and give my thoughts. Most of said footage originates from the 1980's, when the aquarium first opened, to the early 2000's, which I can only assume is because the aquarium was still testing out what shark species it could properly care for before settling with the species exhibited there today; after they began exhibiting great whites, the diversity of incoming sharks seemed to steeply decline leading up to the modern day. Speaking of...
For reference, here are the sharks currently and "relatively recently" (*) exhibited at the aquarium as far as I can recall:
- Swell shark (Cephaloscyllium ventriosum) (Kelp Forest, Splash Zone & Penguins)
- Horn shark (Heterodontus francisci)* (Splash Zone & Penguins)
- Broadnose sevengill shark (Notorynchus cepedianus) (Monterey Bay Habitats)
- Filetail catshark (Parmaturus xaniurus)* (Into the Deep)
- Scalloped hammerhead (Sphyrna lewini) (Open Sea)
- Pacific spiny dogfish (Squalus suckleyi) (Monterey Bay Habitats)
- Pacific angelshark (Squatina californica) (Monterey Bay Habitats)
- Leopard shark (Triakis semifasciata) (Kelp Forest, Monterey Bay Habitats)
The scalloped hammerhead is the only shark here I would really consider to be pelagic. Only one... I wonder why...
Alright, now on with the pelagic sharks I wanted to discuss:
Common thresher (Alopias vulpinus):
Go to 10 Minutes and 55 Seconds
"Something very close to its original home?" I am not so sure about that. This 1988 documentary features two back-to-back shots of common threshers being introduced to the main tank within the Monterey Bay Habitats exhibit. Sadly, you can see one incapacitated/dead thresher laying at the bottom of the tank in the first shot and the labored swimming of the two threshers in the second shot doesn’t seem like a good sign either. I think this is the first solid piece of evidence I have ever come across of threshers in captivity, though it’s not surprising why the information is so obscure.
P.S. I am pretty sure these are, indeed, common threshers. The superficially similar pelagic thresher (Alopias pelagicus) has a thinner tail than those of the threshers in the video and isn’t even native to Monterey Bay where the Monterey Bay Aquarium sources much of its wildlife.
Oceanic whitetip shark (Carcharhinus longimanus):
Go to 2 Minutes and 54 Seconds
Go to 2 Minutes and 17 Seconds
Oceanic Whitetip Shark Carcharhinus longimanus (Poey, 1861) in Captivity
This shark shows up in Monterey Bay Aquarium videos from the early 2000's and had the fortune of being recorded on Henry F. Mollet's elasmobranch research website, meaning we know a decent bit about its 3-year stay at the aquarium. It was a five foot long, 50 pound female that was caught on October 2nd, 2000 off Baja California, introduced to the main tank of the Open Sea exhibit on the night of October 5th, 2000, and lived at the aquarium for over three years until succumbing to a bacterial infection on December 22nd, 2003 (and conveniently opening space for a great white to move in the next year). If you ask me, I think it did well in retrospect. It lived over twice as long as other oceanic whitetips in captivity, grew in total length from 1.59 to 1.90 meters, and nearly doubled in weight from 22 kilograms to 42.2 kilograms a week before death. Though the reason goes unspecified, my guess is that the bacterial infection was brought on by rubbing against the sides of the tank because this behavior led to the downfall of another shark of interest...
Blue shark (Prionace glauca):
Go to 18 Minutes and 43 Seconds
Blue Shark (Prionace glauca) in Captivity
I like to think that the shark in the video clip (on the right side of the tank) is not a tope shark (Galeorhinus galeus), which appear elsewhere in this 1996 documentary, but rather the Open Sea exhibit's only ever blue shark, which was caught on November 29th, 1995 in Monterey Bay. However, she did not live to see her exhibit open to the public in March of the next year, so unless the crowd in the video consists of staff, something is not adding up. It’s extra weird because the shark in the video has the blue shark's characteristically long dorsal fins, but maybe the low resolution of the video is messing with me. Anyways, the shark was euthanized on February 14th, 1996 after 96 days in captivity because of a throat wound caused by rubbing against the sides of the tank. Unlike oceanic whitetips, which tend to live for over a year within aquariums, blue sharks last for only a matter of weeks or even hours. I hear captivity can even drain them of their blue coloration. How depressing .
To the surprise of nobody, all three of these examples serve as clear reminders that most large, pelagic sharks, even under expert care, simply do not fare well in captivity unlike demersal species. Whether it is because of their highly migratory nature, their unfamiliarity with maneuvering around physical obstacles, their sheer size, something else, or a combination of these factors, I believe that aquariums should avoid sharks like these unless someone can design a tailor-made enclosure that adequately meets these animals' needs. That seems to be the conclusion the Monterey Bay Aquarium has come to, and while the experimentation it took to get there leaves a bad taste in my mouth, I can at least sleep easy knowing that they have learned their lesson... unlike some OTHER aquariums. But that is a topic for another day. I hope you all enjoyed this read and I cannot wait to engage more with a community I have longed to join for so long!
For reference, here are the sharks currently and "relatively recently" (*) exhibited at the aquarium as far as I can recall:
- Swell shark (Cephaloscyllium ventriosum) (Kelp Forest, Splash Zone & Penguins)
- Horn shark (Heterodontus francisci)* (Splash Zone & Penguins)
- Broadnose sevengill shark (Notorynchus cepedianus) (Monterey Bay Habitats)
- Filetail catshark (Parmaturus xaniurus)* (Into the Deep)
- Scalloped hammerhead (Sphyrna lewini) (Open Sea)
- Pacific spiny dogfish (Squalus suckleyi) (Monterey Bay Habitats)
- Pacific angelshark (Squatina californica) (Monterey Bay Habitats)
- Leopard shark (Triakis semifasciata) (Kelp Forest, Monterey Bay Habitats)
The scalloped hammerhead is the only shark here I would really consider to be pelagic. Only one... I wonder why...
Alright, now on with the pelagic sharks I wanted to discuss:
Common thresher (Alopias vulpinus):
"Something very close to its original home?" I am not so sure about that. This 1988 documentary features two back-to-back shots of common threshers being introduced to the main tank within the Monterey Bay Habitats exhibit. Sadly, you can see one incapacitated/dead thresher laying at the bottom of the tank in the first shot and the labored swimming of the two threshers in the second shot doesn’t seem like a good sign either. I think this is the first solid piece of evidence I have ever come across of threshers in captivity, though it’s not surprising why the information is so obscure.
P.S. I am pretty sure these are, indeed, common threshers. The superficially similar pelagic thresher (Alopias pelagicus) has a thinner tail than those of the threshers in the video and isn’t even native to Monterey Bay where the Monterey Bay Aquarium sources much of its wildlife.
Oceanic whitetip shark (Carcharhinus longimanus):
Oceanic Whitetip Shark Carcharhinus longimanus (Poey, 1861) in Captivity
This shark shows up in Monterey Bay Aquarium videos from the early 2000's and had the fortune of being recorded on Henry F. Mollet's elasmobranch research website, meaning we know a decent bit about its 3-year stay at the aquarium. It was a five foot long, 50 pound female that was caught on October 2nd, 2000 off Baja California, introduced to the main tank of the Open Sea exhibit on the night of October 5th, 2000, and lived at the aquarium for over three years until succumbing to a bacterial infection on December 22nd, 2003 (and conveniently opening space for a great white to move in the next year). If you ask me, I think it did well in retrospect. It lived over twice as long as other oceanic whitetips in captivity, grew in total length from 1.59 to 1.90 meters, and nearly doubled in weight from 22 kilograms to 42.2 kilograms a week before death. Though the reason goes unspecified, my guess is that the bacterial infection was brought on by rubbing against the sides of the tank because this behavior led to the downfall of another shark of interest...
Blue shark (Prionace glauca):
Blue Shark (Prionace glauca) in Captivity
I like to think that the shark in the video clip (on the right side of the tank) is not a tope shark (Galeorhinus galeus), which appear elsewhere in this 1996 documentary, but rather the Open Sea exhibit's only ever blue shark, which was caught on November 29th, 1995 in Monterey Bay. However, she did not live to see her exhibit open to the public in March of the next year, so unless the crowd in the video consists of staff, something is not adding up. It’s extra weird because the shark in the video has the blue shark's characteristically long dorsal fins, but maybe the low resolution of the video is messing with me. Anyways, the shark was euthanized on February 14th, 1996 after 96 days in captivity because of a throat wound caused by rubbing against the sides of the tank. Unlike oceanic whitetips, which tend to live for over a year within aquariums, blue sharks last for only a matter of weeks or even hours. I hear captivity can even drain them of their blue coloration. How depressing .
To the surprise of nobody, all three of these examples serve as clear reminders that most large, pelagic sharks, even under expert care, simply do not fare well in captivity unlike demersal species. Whether it is because of their highly migratory nature, their unfamiliarity with maneuvering around physical obstacles, their sheer size, something else, or a combination of these factors, I believe that aquariums should avoid sharks like these unless someone can design a tailor-made enclosure that adequately meets these animals' needs. That seems to be the conclusion the Monterey Bay Aquarium has come to, and while the experimentation it took to get there leaves a bad taste in my mouth, I can at least sleep easy knowing that they have learned their lesson... unlike some OTHER aquariums. But that is a topic for another day. I hope you all enjoyed this read and I cannot wait to engage more with a community I have longed to join for so long!
