Yesterday was a special day for the Vancouver Aquarium, as they released a rehabilitated shark.
It was the first rescue, rehabilitation, and release of a shark for the aquarium in their 62-year-history.
The North Pacific dogfish shark was released in the Burrard Inlet yesterday after six months of care at the aquarium.
The shark was rescued on Aug. 16, 2017, after a concerned beach-goer called the Marine Mammal Rescue Centre at the aquarium when they witnessed a distressed fish on the beach at Lumberman’s Arch.
The team immediately responded to the stranded animal, finding a female shark entangled in a fishing net, weakened and disoriented after sustaining significant skin wounds from the net.Vancouver Aquarium says that the shark also suffered from a damaged spiracle and blood in one eye.
“The dogfish was in very poor shape when we found her,” said Dr. Martin Haulena, head veterinarian at Vancouver Aquarium and director of the Marine Mammal Rescue Centre.
Haulena says that their team, led by Dr. Amy Gould, provided the 24-hour intensive care required to stabilize the dogfish when she was transferred to the Aquarium.
In the days following her rescue, the dogfish began swimming independently, and two weeks after, she began eating squid when hand-fed by an Aquarium biologist. Over time, the team helped the dogfish transition to feeding from a target and then foraging for food. As her appetite and diet expanded, her wounds healed and she became much stronger.
Yesterday, our team released a North Pacific spiny dogfish — a species of #shark — in Burrard Inlet following six months of rehabilitation. This first for #VanAqua made #ValentinesDay especially sweet. Watch! pic.twitter.com/6yn9vOKWC7
— Vancouver Aquarium (@vanaqua) February 15, 2018
“It’s been a long road to recovery for this spiny dogfish and she’s come so far. When her skin lesions were no longer visible, her spiracle and eye healed, and her strength and energy regained, we knew she was ready to return to the wild,” said senior Aquarium biologist Justin Lisaingo. “Seeing her healthy and able to swim away was incredibly rewarding.”
