Teens Held in Attack on Sharks at Aquarium

Three Long Beach middle school students were arrested for allegedly breaking into the Aquarium of the Pacific, where police say they tortured and killed two sharks and a ray.

The attack occurred sometime after 11 p.m. Sunday, when the fish were last seen alive, said Perry Hampton, director of aquarium husbandry.

Aquarium staff arrived early Monday to find debris in the shark habitat and the velvety black cow-nose ray on the concrete pool deck. They then noticed that some sharks were missing.

A 2-foot-long striped bamboo shark was found on the mesh overhang of the Lorikeet bird exhibit next door to the shark lagoon. Searching further, the staff found a 3-foot-long chocolate brown nurse shark called Michelle in bushes next to the Pierpont Landing parking lot.

“She had been dragged over concrete, rock, dirt, who knows what,” said aquarium staff member Cecile Fisher, who added that Michelle had been at the aquarium since it opened more than six years ago.

Leaving the fish out of water suffocated them, Hampton said, like “choking a person of air.”

Aquarium officials said the fish were also stabbed or poked with plastic pipes.

Another creature -- a leopard shark -- suffered superficial wounds suggesting that it also had been struck with a pipe. In addition, three or four small sharks had been tossed into the large-shark tank, where they survived but could have been eaten.

About 9 p.m. Monday, a security guard spotted a boy dropping over an 8-foot-high chain-link fence into the shark lagoon area and called Long Beach police. The boy and three other youths were chased down the street and caught along Shoreline Drive, said Sgt. David Cannan.

Detectives believe that the boys were trying to break into the aquarium for a second time. The youths -- three 13-year-olds and a 14-year-old -- are students in the Long Beach Unified School District.

The three teenagers suspected in Sunday’s attack were being held Tuesday at Los Padrinos juvenile facility on suspicion of felony animal cruelty and conspiracy to commit animal cruelty, and misdemeanor trespassing, Cannan said.

The fourth youth was apparently not present during the attack and was being held on a felony conspiracy charge.

Police said the youths had no previous criminal records. Cannan said he could not reveal much else about them other than to say they were cooperating with investigators.

The district attorney’s office will decide how to proceed in the case.

That animals would be attacked in the aquarium’s most popular exhibit -- designed to instill respect for sharks and teach that the fish are largely harmless to humans -- seemed an especially tough blow for people who work and volunteer at the aquarium.

“It is very, very disheartening and saddening to our folks here,” Hampton said. “We can’t even conceive of someone doing this.”

Aquarium guests also expressed dismay Tuesday.

“It’s disgusting,” said Kim Stevens, 30, a Texas resident who was visiting the aquarium for the first time with her 13-year-old son, Shelby.

Gazing into the aqua shark tank Tuesday morning, Beverly Morris of Basingstoke, England, gasped upon hearing that some of the creatures had been killed nearby.

Her son, Adam, 4, sporting a T-shirt with a shark from the movie “Finding Nemo,” squinted while trying to comprehend it.

“It’s awful, awful,” said Morris, 30. “What were they possibly thinking?”

That lingering question is one that aquarium President and Chief Executive Jerry Schubel seeks to find an answer to, with the help of Long Beach students.

On Tuesday, hoping that some good could come out of the attack, he called the superintendent of the Long Beach school district and offered to have his staff lead forums with students to discuss the killings and what might have provoked them.

“We want to hear from them, to hear what they have to say,” Schubel said.

He added that he was less interested in punishment than in “rehabilitation and education” of the attackers.