ORANGE COUNTY PERSPECTIVE : Shore Thing

A gentle giant of a shark showed up on Orange County’s shoreline this week, giving landlubbers a fascinating glimpse of a deep-sea creature so rare that only five of its kind have been found anywhere since they were first discovered a mere 14 years ago.

The Megachasma pelagios, as the megamouth shark is known to scientists, survived after being ensnared Sunday in the gill net of a fishing boat off Dana Point. The fisherman could have let it die--as is the sad fate of so many dolphins and other creatures caught in gill nets. Instead, he cut his $5,000 net, tethered the shark and towed it back to shore, sure that he had stumbled upon a treasure. That gave marine experts the unusual opportunity to study it and add to knowledge that can be used to teach men to better share the oceans with their inhabitants.

Because of the shark’s huge appetite for plankton, aquariums in the United States and Japan refused to accept it. Also, there were fears that it would die in captivity.

Instead, in the 39 hours it was tethered to the fisherman’s boat, it was poked, ogled and photographed, its big eyes following these activities with seeming bemusement. Occasionally it flinched when touched. Finally, it was rigged with tracking devices and released.

Yes, the Persian Gulf continues to simmer, there’s a budget crisis and a hole in the ozone layer. But the short visit by this bonhomous creature and its safe return to sea after a close encounter with humans was a bit of good news.