LOS ANGELES : Baby Great White Shark Dies During Transfer

A baby great white shark captured by halibut fishermen last week outside Los Angeles Harbor died Saturday while being transported to Steinhart Aquarium in San Francisco.

Scientists were hoping the 4 1/2-foot shark, believed to be no more than a couple of months old, would survive to become the first great white to adapt to captivity. No great white has remained in captivity more than 16 days.

“We were sad and disappointed,” said John McCosker, curator of the Steinhart Aquarium. “It’s a very elusive goal.”

The shark, captured Thursday in a net about a mile outside the breakwater, appeared in good health during the couple of days it remained in a fiberglass tank at USC’s Hancock Institute for Marine Studies on Terminal Island.

USC scientists, however, believed the shark would fare better at the Steinhart Aquarium in San Francisco, which has a 100,000-gallon tank and marine biologists with expertise in great whites.

Worried that the shark would become ill, a team of Steinhart biologists drove a special transport tank nonstop to Los Angeles Friday night, arriving at the Hancock Institute at 3 a.m. Another team of biologists stayed behind, working through the night to move other sharks from the giant aquarium and prepare it for the new arrival.

During the trip, the biologists noticed the great white becoming sluggish, McCosker said. It wasn’t until they arrived at Steinhart later that afternoon and started disassembling the holding tank that scientists discovered the shark had died.