The Two Oceans Aquarium recently collected two young female ragged-tooth sharks for display in the I&J Predator Exhibit. These sharks replace “Val”, who was released back into the ocean on 4 April 2005 and her fellow ambassador, “Maxine”, on 18 March 2004. Their releases were part of the Save Our Seas Foundation Maxine, Science, Education and Awareness (M-Sea) Programme, an AfriOceans Conservation Alliance initiative.
The new sharks, named ‘’M.J.’’ and ‘’El’’, were caught by local fishermen, Derek Neethling and Trail Witthun, near Struisbaai. Visitors to the Two Oceans Aquarium often ask, “How do you catch a shark?”. Claire Taylor, Senior Aquarist, answers, in a nonchalant manner, “With a hook and line. The fishermen use a hand-held line and a 10-cm long hook. Once it is brought in, the shark is quickly sedated and carried by stretcher to the transport tank on board a 6-ton truck.”
Upon arrival at the Aquarium, the new “Girls’’ were released into the I&J Predator Exhibit where they were chaperoned by divers until they had orientated themselves in their new environment. Considerably smaller than their co-inhabitants, Bella, Dee and Billy, M.J. and El each weigh approximately 100 kg. This is half the size of Val and Maxine who both weighed about 200 kg at the time of their release! El can be identified by the scars on her snout and she is slightly lighter in colour than M.J. M.J. appears to be calmer in nature with El being the more dominant of the two.
At the same time as the collection of the two new sharks and the tag and release of Val, a large wild ragged-tooth shark was also tagged with a satellite tag. This will provide scientists with a unique opportunity to compare the behaviour of released Aquarium sharks with that of wild sharks. ‘’We know so little about these animals. We hope that with each shark release, we will be able to contribute to our knowledge of ragged-tooth sharks in the wild and to changing perceptions of sharks in general.” said Michael Farquhar, Curator of the Aquarium.
AfriOceans Conservation Alliance (AOCA) will once again run a Tag Competition in which people have the opportunity to guess where Val’s tag will surface and win fantastic prizes. These include a two-night getaway at the luxurious four-star guesthouse, Parkes Manor, in Knysna; a Featherbed Experience for two, including a buffet meal; vouchers for Monkeyland; two complimentary Bridge Walks on the world-renowned Bloukrans Bridge, courtesy of Face Adrenalin Sports; entrance for two to the Knysna Elephant Park; a Reef wetsuit; an Immersion H20 dive watch; a Brightweights weightbelt; Rozier Reef Merlot and Rozier Reef Pinotage wine sponsored by Atlantic Wine Agencies and an annual subscription to the award-winning wildlife magazine ‘’Africa Geographic’’. Entries can be made either by logging onto www.aoca.org.za or at the Two Oceans Aquarium.
