Walk into a room and see a four-meter great white shark suspended in a greenish, murky fog of formaldehyde. It’s unsettling. It’s also one of the most famous urban exploration "finds" in recent history. Most people just call it the dead shark in a jar, but her name is Rosie, and her path from the ocean to a decaying wildlife park—and eventually to a high-tech restoration lab—is actually a pretty wild look at how we preserve nature and what happens when we just... forget about it.
Rosie isn't some prop from a horror movie. She’s real.
Back in 1997, a great white shark was caught in tuna fishing nets off the coast of South Australia. Since great whites are protected, you can't just keep them for fun, but the authorities decided she was a prime specimen for education. She ended up at Wildlife Wonderland in Bass, Victoria. The park's owner, John Matthews, spent an absolute fortune—we’re talking about half a million dollars—to build a custom tank. It wasn't just a big aquarium; it was a massive, reinforced steel and glass "jar" filled with thousands of liters of formaldehyde to keep her from rotting.
Then the park got shut down.
In 2012, the Department of Sustainability and Environment pulled the plug on Wildlife Wonderland for not having the right licenses to display live animals. The owners walked away. They left the buildings, the gift shop, and the giant shark. For years, she sat in the dark.
How the Dead Shark in a Jar Became a Viral Sensation
Things stayed quiet until 2018. An urban explorer named Luke McPherson uploaded a video of the abandoned park to YouTube. The footage was eerie. It felt like a scene from Bioshock. You see a dark, graffiti-covered room, and then the camera hits the tank. There she is: the dead shark in a jar, floating like a ghost in the gloom. The video exploded. Within months, it had millions of views, and that's when the trouble started.
People are messy.
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Once the location leaked, the site was swarmed. Vandalism isn't just about spray paint; people actually tried to smash the tank. Someone even threw a television into the formaldehyde. This was incredibly dangerous. Formaldehyde is a carcinogen. It's toxic. If that tank had fully shattered, the fumes alone could have seriously hurt the trespassers, not to mention the environmental disaster of all those chemicals leaking into the ground.
The Science of Preservation (and Why It Almost Failed)
Preserving something as massive as a great white shark isn't as simple as putting a pickle in brine. When Rosie was first housed, she was "fixed." This is a chemical process where the formaldehyde crosses-links the proteins in the tissue. Basically, it turns the shark's flesh into a sort of plastic-leather. It stops bacteria from eating the body.
But the tank leaked.
By the time the public rediscovered her, the fluid level had dropped. This exposed the top of Rosie’s dorsal fin to the air, which leads to rapid decay. Worse, the chemical balance was ruined by the trash people threw in. The "jar" was becoming a toxic soup that was actively eating away at the very thing it was supposed to save. If you look at photos from 2019, she looked grey and shriveled.
Moving a Two-Ton Predator
You can't just put a four-meter shark on a flatbed truck and drive away. Tom Kapitany, who runs Crystal World and Prehistoric Journeys in Devon Meadows, eventually stepped in to save her. It was a massive logistical nightmare.
- First, the toxic formaldehyde had to be pumped out safely.
- The tank had to be stabilized so it wouldn't collapse during the move.
- The shark herself had to be wrapped and kept moist so she didn't crumble.
- A crane was needed to lift the entire assembly.
Honestly, it’s a miracle she didn't fall apart. When they got her to Crystal World, the first thing they had to do was get rid of the remaining formaldehyde. It’s nasty stuff. They decided to switch her over to glycerin. Glycerin is a much safer preservative. It’s clear, it’s oily, and it doesn't give you cancer just by standing near it.
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Why We Are Obsessed With Things in Jars
There is something deeply human about wanting to stop time. Taxidermy and wet specimens like Rosie allow us to see apex predators up close without, you know, being eaten. But Rosie became more than a biological specimen. She became a symbol of "ruin porn"—that weird internet obsession with abandoned places.
She represented the 90s era of roadside attractions that couldn't survive the digital age. When we look at the dead shark in a jar, we aren't just looking at a fish. We’re looking at a failed business, a forgotten piece of local history, and the power of the internet to turn a "discarded" object into a global icon.
Misconceptions About the Tank
A lot of people think the shark is still "rotting" today. She’s not.
The restoration was a success. If you go to Crystal World now, she looks better than she has in twenty years. The glycerin has cleared up the murkiness, though she still has some battle scars from the vandals. Some people also claim she was "killed for the exhibit." That's also false. As mentioned, she was an accidental bycatch. In the 90s, the ethics of keeping such a specimen were viewed differently, but she wasn't hunted for the sake of the tank.
The Future of Rosie the Shark
Rosie is now a permanent resident at Crystal World. She’s safe from vandals. She’s in a stable chemical environment. But her story serves as a pretty big warning about how we treat "trash."
If Luke McPherson hadn't filmed that video, Rosie probably would have been destroyed when the Wildlife Wonderland site was eventually cleared for development. She would have ended up in a landfill. Instead, she’s a tourist attraction again. It’s a weirdly happy ending for a dead fish.
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Actionable Insights for Seeing Rosie or Starting Your Own Collection
If you’re fascinated by the idea of Rosie and want to dive deeper into the world of wet specimens or urban exploration history, here is how you can engage with it safely and legally.
1. Visit the Real Thing
Don't go looking for abandoned parks. It’s dangerous and usually illegal. You can see Rosie at Crystal World and Prehistoric Journeys in Meadows, Victoria. It’s a much better experience because you can actually see her through clear glass without the smell of toxic fumes.
2. Learn About Wet Preservation
If you’re interested in how this works on a smaller scale, look into "wet specimen" taxidermy. It’s a growing hobby. You start with small things—like feeder mice or insects—and use 70% isopropyl alcohol rather than dangerous formaldehyde. Just remember that anything larger than a small lizard usually requires professional-grade chemicals and injections to prevent internal rot.
3. Support Marine Conservation
The best way to appreciate a great white shark isn't in a jar. Groups like the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy or the CSIRO in Australia do actual research to keep these animals in the ocean where they belong. Rosie is a relic of a time when we thought "owning" nature was the only way to study it. Today, we have satellite tagging and high-def underwater cameras.
4. Respect the "Leave No Trace" Rule
If you do find yourself at an abandoned site, don't be the person who throws a TV into a shark tank. Urban exploration relies on a code of ethics: "Take nothing but pictures, leave nothing but footprints." The damage done to Rosie by vandals almost made her impossible to save.
The story of the dead shark in a jar is basically a story about us. It’s about what we value, what we throw away, and how sometimes, the internet can actually save a piece of history from the scrap heap. Rosie is staying put for now, floating in her new, clean home, a four-meter reminder that even in death, some things are just too big to be forgotten.
To see Rosie today, check the visitor hours for Crystal World. They often post updates on her condition and the ongoing maintenance of the tank. It’s a massive engineering feat that requires constant monitoring of the fluid levels and clarity. Seeing her in person is a completely different vibe than a grainy YouTube video—she’s massive, imposing, and strangely peaceful.