INQUISITR.COM / News & Politics

Sixth Great White Shark Tagged Off Cape Cod This Summer

By Dustin Wicksell
Published on: 10:46 PST, Jul 16, 2016

Earlier this week researchers working off Cape Cod tagged their fifth and sixth great white sharks of the summer, taking the next step in the third year of a population study that looks set to document a record number of the predators in the coming months.

The tagging took place off Monomoy Island, according to Patch, and was announced on social media by the non-profit Atlantic White Shark Conservancy. Dr. Greg Skomal, of the Massachusetts State Division of Marine Fisheries, tagged both the 11- and nine-foot-long white sharks on Friday, July 15, working from the prow of the conservancy’s research vessel. In addition to those two specimens, the research team was able to spot eight other white sharks on their voyage, as Wicked Local reports.

The season may be set to be a record-breaking event for the team, which successfully documented 141 individual great white sharks off the cape last year. In the previous year, which marked the first season of a joint population study conducted by the Division of Marine Fisheries in concert with the conservancy, only 68 white sharks were cataloged.

In recent years, the cape’s itinerant shark population has grown each summer, driven largely by a rebounding seal colony located on Monomoy Island. This unique situation has given researchers their first predictable access to white sharks in the Northern Atlantic, as a large number of the predators are lured in by the abundance of prey each summer. The conservancy has used this fact to their great advantage, and is now in the third year of a population study that is intended to last five years. During their twice weekly research trips, the group works to identify each white shark in local waters using GoPro cameras (cataloging each animal based on their distinctive markings), and tagging the sharks when possible. The conservancy has also been able to document unique white shark behavior, including one of the first breach attacks ever recorded along the East Coast of the United States.

The arrival of the great whites has changed the dynamic along the cape, giving some beachgoers pause while enthralling others. Last year, emergency regulations were put in place in an effort to mitigate negative interactions between sharks and swimmers, protecting both populations from each other, as the Inquisitr previously reported. More recently, the conservancy has released a smartphone app named Sharktivity, which allows visitors and locals to track any tagged white shark in near-real time. Though the app is only available for Apple phones as of its launch earlier this month, an Android version is currently in development. In the meantime, beachgoers can also access the data on the conservancy’s website.

This summer has already seen a number of notable interactions between local swimmers and the newly arrived white shark population. As the Inquisitr previously reported, a white shark was recorded by beachgoers near Provincetown several weeks ago as it preyed upon a seal, while the conservancy’s research team recorded two distinct predation events in their first few days on the water. Aided by spotter pilot Wayne Davis, the team has also documented a great white shark chasing a seal through the surf, in a moment reminiscent of last year’s breach attack. On June 29 of this year, the conservancy also detected Jameson, a young white shark that made headlines when he was stranded in Chatham last year, as he returned to the cape a full year after his dramatic rescue.

[Photo by Elias Levy – Own Work via Wikimedia Commons | Cropped and Resized | CC BY 2.0]

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