The young white shark devoured a meal of wild-caught salmon fillets Wednesday morning less than 24 hours after going on exhibit at the aquarium—a breakthrough in the decades-long effort by public aquariums to successfully keep this globally threatened ocean predator on long-term exhibit.

The 4-foot, 4-inch, 62-pound female shark ate four salmon fillets weighing a collective one-and two-thirds pounds as they were offered one at a time at the end of a pole held in front of her as she swam in the aquarium’s million-gallon Outer Bay exhibit. This is only the second documented instance of a white shark feeding while held at an aquarium.

We hope to keep the white shark on long-term exhibit as a way to change public attitudes and promote protection of this feared and much-maligned ocean predator. Our staff are monitoring the shark on a round-the-clock basis, and recording data about her activities every 15 minutes.