Monterey Bay Aquarium. An accidental catch in a Southern California fishing net has become the star in a major new exhibit at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. In September 2004, a young, four-foot long female white shark was introduced into the million-gallon, multi-species Outer Bay exhibit. There are no other white sharks on display in the world today, and none has remained on exhibit for more than 16 days. Aquarium personnel are monitoring the shark to evaluate whether or not she will remain on long-term exhibit. Since people have long feared and demonized the white shark, the aquarium hopes this exhibition will raise public awareness of the threats the shark face, and the need for conservation. Press contact: Monterey Bay Aquarium, Mimi Hahn, mhahn@mbayaq.org, 831/648-4918, or Ken Peterson, kpeterson@mbayaq.org, 831/648-4922. Public contact: 831/648-4888, www.montereybayaquarium.org.

Monterey County. Personalized Nature Tours in Monterey. It was nearly 30 years ago, during a tide-pooling field trip he co-led, that Milos Radakovich first got hooked on sharing his knowledge of marine wildlife and ecology. Now visitors can join Milos, a Moss Landing Research Laboratories graduate, on personalized nature tours of California's Central Coast. Learn about sand dune vegetation at Asilomar State Beach, explore geologic formations and pine forests at Point Lobos State Park, or discover migratory birds and marine life at Elkhorn Slough. Press and public contact: Personalized Nature Tours in Monterey, Milos Radakovich, milos@mbay.net, 831/373-6396, www.mbay.net/~milos.

more >>