Prickly Shark Captured: Brief Exhibit at Monterey Bay Aquarium

The shark was captured by the Moss Landing Marine Lab at 11 p.m. Tuesday and put on display, but aquarium staff determined it wasn't doing well in captivity and returned it to the wild at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday. On exhibit, it flipped upsidedown and went into a hypnotic state, signaling researchers that it needed to be released back into the bay.

"Deep water animals have trouble adapting," said Ken Peterson, an aquarium spokesman. "We were a bit disappointed that it wasn't here longer to connect with visitors face to face."

Although no research was conducted during the shark's overnight stay, researchers tagged it with an electronic tracking tag, which will pop free from the shark in six months.

"There is potential to gain a lot of information from the tag," Peterson said. "It still record the depths, the temperatures it prefers and the latitude and longitude it covers."