The man charged with stealing a horn shark from San Antonio Aquarium in the US has claimed he is a marine activist.
"Miss Helen" was stolen from the aquarium on Saturday after Anthony Shannon brazenly snatched the small horn shark from a tide tank, wrapped it in a blanket and placed it into a pram.
But with the help of CCTV footage police tracked Shannon back to his home.
On Monday, staff returned Miss Helen to the aquarium after finding her in a tank along with an array of other marine life.
Shannon was charged with theft, but has now told US News outlet Kens5 that he is an activist with more than 30 years' experience in dealing with aquariums.
"I'm an activist, not a criminal," he said.
"It was wrong to just take him like that, but, at that point in time, it was just something that I had to do," he added.
Shannon also said about a month ago he posed as a salt distributor to gain access to the aquarium and investigate the conditions of the tanks.
This was confirmed by San Antonio Aquarium who released a statement earlier in the week.
"Jamie [an employee at San Antonio Aquarium] made a statement to the investigators she suspects that the man who stole our shark visited our Aquarium about a month ago posed as an Instant Ocean employee," the statement read.
"Instant Ocean is our supplier for salt, he offered to do salt and water testing on all of our exhibits."
The owner of the aquarium said it was astonishing Miss Helen survived the event.
"We value the lives of all of our animals and take pride in the care that we can give them, as well as the education that we can provide for the general public about these treasured species," he said in a statement.
"We are astonished but so grateful that she survived this catastrophic event. This guy knew what he was doing, or she wouldn’t have survived."
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