Advice for Little Shark 54: Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming!

March 12, 2008 at 4:59AM
A tour group at the Mall of America's Underwater Adventures Aquarium visited on Tuesday a holding tank behind the scenes where they saw Fishstick (center of photo, facing camera), formerly known as Little Shark 54 and who nearly became a snack for another shark at the aquarium on Jan. 25. Fishstick and the other whitetip reef sharks have been kept safe in a holding tank and today will be released back into the large tank . It is expected that Jesse, a sand tiger shark, who, at 9 ½ feet and 300 p
A tour group at the Mall of America’s Underwater Adventures Aquarium visited on Tuesday a holding tank behind the scenes where they saw Fishstick (center of photo, facing camera), formerly known as Little Shark 54 and who nearly became a snack for another shark at the aquarium on Jan. 25. Fishstick and the other whitetip reef sharks have been kept safe in a holding tank and today will be released back into the large tank . It is expected that Jesse, a sand tiger shark, who, at 9 ½ feet and 300 pounds is the largest shark in the aquarium, will not repeat her half-hearted attempt to eat young Fishstick, who, at 4 feet and 50 pounds, is just a minnow in comparison. (Star Tribune/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

The little shark that almost became lunch for Jesse, the biggest shark resident of Underwater Adventures aquarium at the Mall of America, has recovered from her wounds and is set to go back into the big tank today, with a new name: "Fish Stick."

Once known as Little Shark 54, the 50-pound white-tip reef shark was nearly eaten in January by Jesse, a 300-pound sand tiger shark. Aquarium employees rescued her, and she's been recovering in a separate tank among four other white-tip reef sharks.

During her recuperation, she got a Caring Bridge website where fans could monitor her recovery and suggest names. Submissions included Chomp, Phoenix, Miracle, Snackers and Lucky.

All five reef sharks will be released back into the big tank at about 9 a.m. today. While nature dictates that big fish often eat little fish, aquarium officials say Fish Stick's encounter with Jesse was probably a freak incident.

But they will be watching -- just in case.

MARY JANE SMETANKA

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