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White Shark Research Project
Tagging and Field Studies
We're conducting field studies to tag juvenile and adult white sharks and track where they go in the ocean. We're also taking DNA samples to learn more about their population structure. We want to study how white sharks fit into the ocean ecosystem so we can help fisheries managers develop better ways to protect them. This work is a collaborative effort with our research partners at Stanford University, the Tagging of Pacific Pelagics, California State University-Long Beach, University of California-Davis, PRBO Conservation Science, and the Pelagic Shark Research Foundation.
As part of the tagging studies, researchers spend several weeks each summer off Southern California attempting to tag and release white sharks netted accidentally in commercial fishing gear.
The aquarium has spent or committed $840,000 directly to field research aimed at conserving white sharks in the wild.
To date, scientists have tagged and tracked 7 juvenile white sharks and 58 adults. The juvenile sharks have tended to remain in the coastal zone from Northern California to Baja, Mexico. Adult sharks have traveled as far west as Hawaii.
We hope to learn more by configuring tags to collect data over longer periods of time. For example, we'd like to study whether shark behavior changes from season to season. We'll share our data with wildlife officials who can use the information in making fisheries management decisions involving white sharks.
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Tagging Sharks
 In most cases, before a shark is returned to the wild, we fit it with an externally attached pop-up satellite tag with a tiny computer that collects and stores data—on temperature, depth and light (used to estimate position). On a pre-programmed date, the tag pops off the shark and floats to the surface. When the tag is recovered, the data on it are sent via satellite back to the laboratory where they can be analyzed. It's a huge advantage to be able to retrieve the data without having to recapture the shark. In some cases we recover the tag itself and can retrieve even more detailed information.
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Sharks are outfitted with satellite tags that record their movements and the temperature of the water in which they travel.
The white shark tagging is coordinated by the Tuna Research and Conservation Center (TRCC), a partnership between the aquarium and Stanford University. The Southern California Marine Institute and the Shark Lab at California State University-Long Beach, the University of California-Davis, PRBO Conservation Science and the Pelagic Shark Research Foundation also collaborate in the tagging efforts.
White sharks are among the animals being studied by scientists with the Tagging of Pacific Pelagics (TOPP) program. TOPP is a collaboration among researchers from the United States, Canada, Mexico, Japan and the United Kingdom aimed at understanding the migratory patterns of large, open-ocean animals in the North Pacific. The aquarium is a partner in TOPP research and conservation efforts. More about the TOPP project.
Exhibiting a White Shark
Exhibiting a young white shark allows us to contribute significantly to public understanding and protection of white sharks—an ecologically important and increasingly threatened species. Our ongoing efforts to study, and possibly exhibit, a young white shark began in 2002. In September 2004, we introduced a young female into our Outer Bay exhibit for what became the longest-ever exhibit of a white shark—198 days. In March 2005, we successfully returned her to the wild and then tracked her movements for 30 days.
We're also working with other institutions and agencies through our Center for the Future of the Oceans to help develop strategies for white shark conservation policy in California waters.
We received the young white shark in August, 2004, after she was caught inadvertently by commercial fishermen in Southern California. She was held in an ocean pen, where she remained in good health, navigated the pen well and began feeding. On September 14, she was transported to Monterey and placed in our Outer Bay exhibit. During her 198 days in this million-gallon exhibit, she grew from a length of 5 feet and a weight of 62 pounds to a length of 6-feet-4˝ inches and a weight of 162 pounds. She was fitted with a 30-day electronic tag and released on March 31, 2005. After her release, she traveled more than 100 miles offshore and dove more than 800 feet deep before the tag popped free near Santa Barbara.
 In the first month after her release in March, 2005, the young white shark traveled more than 100 miles offshore.
During her stay, she was seen by nearly a million visitors and became, in the words of aquarium Executive Director Julie Packard, “the most powerful emissary for ocean conservation in our history.”
Our white shark project continues, and we hope to exhibit another white shark in the future.
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While the white shark was on exhibit, we were able to talk with nearly a million visitors about the biology of white sharks and the serious conservation issues they face in the wild.
 Photo slideshow of the white shark's story.
 White shark's journey from Malibu to Monterey (1.7 MB)
 Download a free white shark photo
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White Sharks Need Protection
Globally, white sharks are threatened by human activities, and the World Wildlife Fund considers them to be among the top 10 "most wanted" species in the international market.
 In October 2004, white sharks gained new protection in a global wildlife treaty approved by the U.N.-affiliated Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). The 166 member-nations in CITES approved regulations requiring a controlled system of permits for all international trade in white shark parts and products. Under the new regulations, trade will be closely monitored and may be banned altogether if white shark numbers keep falling.
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How to Help
 Your consumer choices are the key to a future where healthy oceans are rich with sharks and other wildlife. Use our Seafood Watch pocket guides to choose sustainable seafood caught in ways that don't endanger sharks, sea turtles and other animals. You can view the guides online or download pocket-size versions.
 As a nonprofit organization, we rely on support from individuals, companies and foundations to make our many ocean conservation, education and research programs possible. You can lend your support by making a gift today online.
 Join our Ocean Action Team to stand up and speak out for conservation efforts to protect white sharks and sea otters, create marine protected areas off the California coast, and take other steps that will assure a future with healthy oceans.
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off the California coast. The project has two primary goals: Tagging and Field Studies and Exhibiting a White Shark.
