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First Great White Shark Of Season Tagged Off Cape Cod

By Dustin Wicksell
Published on: 03:17 PST, Aug 1, 2014

The first great white shark of the season was tagged off Cape Cod this week, officials announced Thursday, amid a season in which the oceangoing predators have been frequently observed off the Eastern Seaboard town.

The great white was tagged off the coast of Chatham, Massachusetts, and is the first white shark to be marked this season, according to NECN. The Atlantic White Shark Conservancy, working in conjunction with the Massachusetts Shark Research Program, said that the great white was around 12 feet in length. Greg Skomal, a scientist working for the state of Massachusetts, was able to tag the great white on Thursday as it swam past a research vessel a few hundred yards offshore.

“We are waiting to view GoPro footage to determine if the shark was male or female,” the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy announced in a posting on their Facebook page. While Skomal’s team has tagged a number of white sharks in recent years, the number of sightings of the creatures has steadily increased. As The Inquisitr has previously reported, the great whites are believed to be moving closer to shore to prey on a large nearby population of seals.

The number of great white sharks in the Atlantic is thought to be surging, following conservation efforts that many scientist believe are responsible for the growing white shark population. The Atlantic White Shark Conservancy has been sending out their spotter plane and boat twice a week in order to locate the animals, Boston magazine reports.

The effort is part of an ongoing study being conducted with the state’s Division of Marine Fisheries. The radio tags placed on the great white sharks relay tracking data, revealing information about the animal’s migratory patterns. Researchers also hope to learn about the shark’s mating habits, which remain a mystery.

Sightings of great white sharks have been plentiful off Cape Cod this summer, leading to a tourism boom fed by interest in the predators. The first great white of the season was spotted by the nonprofit White Shark Conservancy in June. Since then, great white sharks have been observed with increasing regularity in the waters off Cape Cod.

[Image via Boston Magazine]

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