Monterey Aquarium releases White shark

It's been a couple of weeks since the aquarium released the shark into the wild, and I've been struggling with my opinion of this matter. I am confident that the aquarium officials lied about their reasoning, as I stated on my radio show on April 6.
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I've been defending the aquarium on their decision to keep the shark and ignore the cries of the animal rights people because as is usual with the animal friends, their logic was quite warped.
To say that the shark was actively hunting other fish on display was ridiculous because simply put, she was not hungry. She was fed every other day and was thriving. She had no reason to hunt.
Her behavior was easily monitored by anyone who logged on to the aquarium webcam, which link has been provided by me, here at Turzman Central on almost every blog. The most ignorant of laypersons could see that she was not actively hunting anything, just by simple observation.
It is no mystery that Soupfin sharks are lazy, unaggressive swimmers that sort of "drift" along, waiting for their next meal. As was the case of the two unfortunate Soupfins that died, they just sort of got in the White shark's way and paid the ultimate price.
It was then that the tree-huggers said that a Great White was never meant for display in an aquarium. Preposterous.
The scientific potential to study the top of the food chain supercedes the lazy actions of a bottom feeder that dies because it was unaware of its immediate surroundings. Period.
And that was the justification aquarium officials gave upon their decision to keep her.
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In the meantime, the White shark grew about 2 feet and gained alomost 200 pounds in her six month stay in the outer bay exhibit, which surprised me because I always thought the growth rate of Whites was slow. They don't reach sexual maturation until well into their teen years (put in human terms, I apologize).
We could have learned so much more.

But in an unforseeable plot twist, the aquarium released the shark, after some weeks of non-aggressive behavior. They did an about-face on their reasoning, stating that the shark was in fact, hunting other sharks in the tank.
And yet no other animals were harmed. Hmmm.

Not to put too fine a point on it, the aquarium lost their nuts.

They either bowed to the pressure of the tree-huggers, or were too scared at the thought of handling a six-foot White shark. In either event, they lied and made the shark look like a villian. That does not help those of us who want people to become more educated on White shark behavior, and to not fear them. The aquarium did a horrible dis-service to the preservation of Whites. Shame on them.

As I said earlier, if anyone would have spent the time I did observing her by way of webcam as often as I did, they would have seen she was not aggressively hunting anything. The aquarium lied to save face and made the White shark out as the bad guy.

I will never go to the Monterey aquarium again. I will ever spend money to support them. I will never wear the t-shirts and hats sporting their logo (and I have purchased many of those items).

I have lost all respect for the scientific community at Monterey because it is quite clear that the shark's first function was to increase attendance, and to give them a reason to increase prices.
Admission, the gift shop and the restaurant all saw increased prices when the White was on display.
Those reasons should have been a by-product of the scientific reasons to keep her, not the driving force to keep her.

I challenge any representative of the Monterey Bay Aquarium to answer my accusations in this blog, either by way of e-mail to mike@turzman.com or by way of the new guestbook here at Turzman Central.

In the meantime, you guys stink. As far as your promises to display another young White shark in the future; please don't bother. For the sake of us who want to protect White sharks, don't bother. It is obvious that you care more about the capitalistic boon of the bottom line than the study of Earth's greatest predator.

I re-iterate, you guys stink. Drop dead, all of you.

Be sure to sign my guestbook & let me know what you think. Shoot me an e-mail at mike@turzman.com or leave a message at (909) 881-3654.

until next time,
m.