Shirley the Sevengill shark

Hola, Aaron Gregory of Giant Squid here.

Shirley was a Sevengill shark (Notorynchus Cepidianus) that lived at the Aquarium of the Bay in San Francisco, CA for a while, at which point she was the largest Sevengill shark in captivity, measuring 9' 10" and weighing over 350 lbs.

This video I made while working at the AOTB as a professional SCUBA diver. I'm the diver featured the most in the video - black mask, split fins, black and blue suit - following Shirley around to show a good size comparison to me when I swim up near her. She was a bit quicker though, even in her lazy stride. This was shot just a couple of days after we got her, so, even though all of us at the aquarium were very comfortable diving with Sevengills, as we had another eight in the tank, all ranging from seven to eight feet or more in length, we didn't know what to expect from such a large fish as Shirley. Luckily, Shirley was nothing but a big ol' softy the entire time she lived at AOTB. Shark feeding presentations were amazing with her. The other sharks would clear as she came in. She'd inhale the mackerel or salmon we fed out instead of trying to tear it up like the others, thrashing their heads back and forth with the food in their mouth. She just swallowed it all whole. When she opened her incredible maw two feet in front of my face, it looked as if you could crawl down her throat. My head and shoulders could fit in her mouth like it was nothing.

More video coming of when we brought her in, with little ol' me and no one else in a dough boy sized pool with her! A site to see indeed.

Shirley is now swimming free in San Francisco Bay. We let her go right around Alcatraz Island, where we caught her intitially.

Enjoy the video!

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Sevengill
• shark
• seven
• gill
• Giant
• Squid
• Scuba
• diving
• public
• aquarium
• of
• the
• Aaron
• Gregory
• San
• Francisco
• Bay
• notorynchus
• cepidianus

[Copen70]

Gorgeous animal

[TheBlackerGoat]

any footage of her getting fed?

[JohnHopperFilms]

Inspiration for the song????