The New England Aquarium in Boston now has a new nurse shark — the first one in 10 years.
Cirri, a 3.5 foot, 22 pound female nurse shark, can be seen in the aquarium's Caribbean coral reef exhibit.
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"Nurse sharks are a spectacular species to highlight here at the New England Aquarium," said Mike O'Neill, manager of the Giant Ocean Tank.
Before coming to Boston, Cirri — who the aquarium said was named by its staff — spent months acclimating to the aquarium's offsite facility in Quincy, Massachusetts.
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The aquarium said last week, about 12 people helped move the shark to Boston by truck in a 650-gallon transport tank. She now lives in the 200,000-gallon Giant Ocean Tank.
"[Nurse sharks] showcase some amazing adaptations that sharks use to navigate and thrive in reef environments and are a species we have studied extensively in both public aquaria and the wild for decades," said O'Neill.
Cirri now shares the tank with Myrtle the green sea turtle, cownose rays, eels and hundreds of colorful reef fish.
Nurse sharks can be found in tropical and subtropical coastal waters of the Atlantic and Eastern Pacific, according to the aquarium.
Prior to Cirri, the aquarium said Bimini lived in the Giant Ocean Tank for almost 10 years before it was moved to New York in 2013.
The New England Aquarium said with the addition of Cirri, it's continuing a "decades-long commitment of caring for and protecting shark species."
