Freedom is within reach for the ragged tooth sharks that have spent years swimming in circles at the Two Oceans Aquarium in Cape Town.The first of the sharks will be released on Tuesday in Mossel Bay‚ and the rest a week later‚ in preparation for the closure of the aquarium's predator exhibit and the opening of its replacement.The sharks will be tagged with transmitters. “As with all our previous shark releases‚ we are really excited as we will receive data from these transmitters for the next 10 years and through that will continue to contribute to the scientific research being conducted on sharks around the southern African coast‚” said aquarium operations manager Tinus Beukes.The first two "raggies" will be removed on Monday morning."Divers will manoeuvre each shark into a transparent PVC cone. Once secured‚ the shark will be moved to a holding tank that has been placed into the exhibit‚" said aquarium spokesman Renée Leeuwner."From there‚ the sharks will be moved to a 6‚000-litre holding tank on the back of a transport truck. The truck and tank are fitted with complete life support systems that will maintain water quality during the journey to Mossel Bay and overnight."On Tuesday morning‚ the sharks would be driven to the harbour‚ transferred to a boat and taken to an offshore reef for release.A similar procedure would take place for the second set of sharks on June 1 and 2.The new predator exhibit will be the aquarium's first major upgrade in more than two decades. The 1.7-million litre I&J Ocean exhibit with a 10-metre long walk-through glass tunnel and a nine-meter wide viewing panel will be unveiled in June.The new exhibit will have species new to the aquarium‚ such as yellowfin tuna‚ bonito and guitar shark. All of the species from the predator and kelp farm exhibits would either be relocated to the new exhibit or released to the ocean‚ said Leeuwner.“The reopening of the exhibits is scheduled for 2017: the kelp forest will reopen as a kelp forest display‚ but the predator exhibit will be a completely new exhibit‚ housing large sharks and other species yet to be decided on‚” she said.The new predator display has been under construction since 2014 in what was once the parking area between the aquarium building and the One & Only Hotel.“I am absolutely delighted that our plans have come to fruition and that we are able to separate the fish‚ rays and turtles from the large sharks. The warmer water in the new exhibit allows us to include some sub-tropical species as well as species from the southern Cape coast‚" said aquarium CEO Michael Farquhar."This means that we can showcase a greater diversity of species from the waters off southern Africa.”- TMG Digital/Times Cape Bureau..