Monday, January 22, 2007

CARCHARODON

Other than her obvious mystery and primeval beauty, there is a unique quality of the great white shark that particularly appeals to me: the refusal to be held alive in a zoo or sea world or aquarium environment. There have indeed been several attempts to keep them in captivity and each time the shark died, or had to be released, within a short time; and so without wishing to over-dramatise the point, I wish I could say that I'd have that same courage, that same capacity for rapid self-destruction, if ever presented with a metaphorically comparable dilemma.

3 comments:

Matt said...

I've loved the Great White shark ever since my parents took me to see Jaws when I was but a lad. I believe there's an aquarium in California that has managed to keep a few Great Whites alive in captivity for several months at a stretch. As I recall, one of them had to be released after it started eating the other denizens of the aquarium. :-)

William Bennett said...

yes, interesting to hear that, further info on this I just found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_white_shark#Great_white_sharks_in_captivity

Sypha said...

When I was a child, the shark, especially the Great White Shark, was one of my favorite creatures (I recall crying at the end of "Jaws" the first time I saw it as a child because I was sad the shark was killed off). It's really impressive how long they've been around for, all things considered. I sometimes doubt that the human race will be around for as long, given our wanton carelessness/stupidity.