"At this point you could toss a coin to determine where she is now," he said, explaining that very little information exists on migratory patterns of great white sharks. "She could be heading north towards San Francisco, or south towards Baja."
Clues to her whereabouts should become available in late May, when researchers will have had time to analyze the tag's recorded data.
Observations on March 28 prompted the shark's release. For the first time, staff at the aquarium saw her chasing hammerhead and Galapagos sharks in her tank. Dinner, and not love or friendship, clearly was on her mind.
"Sharks, skates, and rays form a normal part of a young great white shark's diet," said Kochevar. "When she began to exhibit precursory hunting behavior, the writing was on the wall that it was time for her to be released."
Just over a month ago, the great white bit and killed two soupfin sharks that were in her tank, which she also had shared with giant Pacific bluefin tuna, yellowfin tuna, California barracuda, dolphinfish, Pacific bonito, Black Sea turtles, pelagic stingrays and the other sharks.
Despite such a swimming seafood buffet, Kochevar said the great white had been "regularly fed to satiation" an average of two to four pounds of wild-caught salmon, albacore tuna, or whole mackerel each day via a special pole that a staff member would dangle in front of the toothy animal. It therefore is possible that predatory instincts, rather than hunger, prompted the great white shark's hunting behavior.
An issue that has stirred greater controversy is the shark's overall health. The animal sustained abrasions when she accidentally was caught in a commercial halibut gillnet off the coast of Huntington Beach in Southern California before the aquarium obtained her.
According to Kochevar, the shark's transport and the animal's "learning her way around the exhibit" exacerbated these abrasions. He said that a veterinarian examined the great white before her release and found that wounds on her snout were healing. The vet also determined that there were no signs of infection.
Some animal rights groups, however, voiced concerns over the snout wound, which they said never healed properly and was aggravated by the shark banging into the sides of the exhibit tank.
Sean Van Sommeran, head of the Pelagic Shark Research Foundation in Santa Cruz, likened the shark's snout to a "worn down pencil eraser" in interview Friday with the San Francisco Chronicle. Van Sommeran had called for the release of the shark for months.
Mark Palmer, assistant director of the International Marine Mammal Project at the Earth Island Institute, agreed with Van Sommeran that the shark should not have been in captivity.
"We are very pleased with the decision to release her," Palmer told Discovery News.
He said, "The educational value of sharks in captivity is overrated. They bring money into aquariums, so there is a financial incentive for aquariums to exhibit sharks and other cetaceans."
Palmer explained that in Japan, aquariums and other commercial outfits pay fishermen for cetaceans that the fishermen have driven into pens. These animals, he said, then are used for moneymaking operations like "swim with dolphins" sites.
The great white shark did increase attendance at the Monterey Bay Aquarium by 30 percent since last September. Kochevar said she was just a part of a three-year field study and that a team will be going out next June to search for another suitable great white, which could be captured in a hired vessel, since the aquarium has a scientific collecting permit.
A second white shark also could be obtained again from a southern California fishery, as the aquarium holds a receiver's license.
"Our female white shark on exhibit was an absolute, unqualified success," Kochevar said. "She did well in transport, fed less than 24 hours after being put on display, and remained in excellent health until we determined that release would be in the best interest of the animal, who was becoming too large for lifting safely out of the exhibit."
At release, the shark measured 6 feet 4 1/2 inches and weighed 162 pounds.
Kochevar added, "She was seen by almost a million people who, according to visitor studies, mostly reported that they left knowing more about great whites and shark conservation. In future, we hope to continue to inspire and to inform the public about sharks."
