This one's for you, Trev:
Truthfully, we won't need THAT big a boat, since she's only four feet long. The shark was inadvertently caught off the coast of Southern California by a fishing trawler and is currently in residence at the Monterey Bay Aquarium in Monterey, California, where I somehow managed to take the above picture just as she was cruising through the frame. Yeah, it's a little blurry--she's a fast shark. More info on the aquarium's White Shark Project can be found here, and you can click on the above photo for a larger image.
Poor shark. :(
I felt a bit bad for her, too. Any tank, no matter how big, is going to be no comparison to the ocean. On the plus side, the Aquarium, a nonprofit organization devoted to wildlife and environmental conservation, is using the project as a means of studying and protecting the species. And for those of us who like to eat fish while being environmentally aware, they offer a handy guide for choosing seafood at http://www.mbayaq.org/cr/seafoodwatch.asp. I think she's in good hands for now.
Yeah, I suppose it's not so bad as if she was just killed for food, or put in some for-profit entertainment type place, but it seems cruel to put an animal that migrates over a thousand-mile range in a tank. And for those of us who don't eat anyone that feels pain, that guide seems nice but not nice enough. So I still think she'd be much better off back in the ocean...
Oh sweet lord, I'm honored.
We have SO much to learn about this amazing species, so lets down some quick studying, then get Bruce Junior back into that Pacific.
GREAT picture boy!
Yours truly,
Ben Gardner