Posted on 07/23/2021 7:22:10 AM PDT by Capt. Tom
Friday, 07/23/2021
The ‘Expedition New England’ will depart Aug. 1, head north Great white shark researchers who have tagged dozens of the apex predators are heading back to Cape Cod next month, while also exploring another part of New England for the first time.
Shark scientists with OCEARCH — a nonprofit with a popular global shark tracker — are returning to the Massachusetts coast on Aug. 1.
But they’re also expanding their area of work to reach a new part of the Northeast: the waters off of New Hampshire.
The Granite State coast has been a missing piece of their great white shark research. They’ve been tagging sharks off the Cape and along Maine and Canada but not off New Hampshire.
“We know the area around Cape Cod and Nantucket Island is a summer aggregation site for the white shark,” said OCEARCH’s Chief Scientist Bob Hueter.
But not all white sharks in the Northwest Atlantic spend their summers off Cape Cod, he added, noting that many migrate as far north as Newfoundland and the Grand Banks, where prey species are also plentiful.
“In between, the productive waters of the Gulf of Maine support the movements of white sharks, but to what degree these sharks use the Gulf is not well understood,” Hueter said. “So for our research this summer, we are returning to Nantucket and Cape Cod, and exploring the Gulf off New Hampshire, in our quest to understand the complete life cycle of the white shark in the Northwest Atlantic.”
OCEARCH first began its Northwest Atlantic White Shark Study nine years ago off the coast of Massachusetts.
This summer research will be OCEARCH’s 41st ocean research expedition.
The “Expedition New England” will depart from New Bedford on Aug. 1 and move up the coast toward New Hampshire, with a final docking planned on Aug. 20.
“With 70 white sharks fully worked up, tagged, and released, OCEARCH’s Northwest Atlantic White Shark Study is the most comprehensive research study that has ever been done on a white shark population,” said Chris Fischer, OCEARCH founder and expedition leader.
During the research trip, the scientists plan to conduct health assessments of each shark and tag sharks to track their long-term movements. They also run microbiological studies of white sharks’ teeth and mouths to determine the best antibiotics to give a person if they’re bitten by a shark.
Community events are planned throughout Expedition New England. On July 31, OCEARCH will host a virtual STEM education camp for students and teachers around the world.
OCEARCH has also teamed up with Cisco Brewers to host great white shark party community events that will help raise money for OCEARCH’s research expeditions.
The OCEARCH tracker shows real-time locations of sharks all around the world, including off Cape Cod, Maine, Australia and South Africa. The tracker is updated when a tagged shark breaks the surface for some time, which sends a signal to the satellite system.
To see where some tagged sharks are in the ocean, visit the OCEARCH Global Shark Tracker at ocearch.org/tracker.
People with iPhones and Androids can download the free OCEARCH Shark Tracker app.
“To what degree these sharks use the Gulf is not well understood.”
BOB HUETER OCEARCH Chief Scientist
By 2013 they were overrun by the number of Federally protected white sharks, and ran out of funding.
That year (2013)Atlantic White Shark Conservancy stepped in to help out.
Recently a massive movement has formed to research these New England white sharks.
Here in New England, now there are about a dozen different groups of biologists who in 2021 will be focusing on white shark research.
And biologists being people, you know there will be some clashes ashore behind the scenes. -Tom
“Plan to conduct health assessments of each shark”
“OK, Whitey, open up and say ahhh.”
“Who’s got the short stick to use the anal thermometer on him?”
“We would like to do a colonoscopy on you if you’ll just bite the consent form. If not now, you’ll probably want to later.”
“Read the letters on line 2 to me. I’m pretty sure there is no biting in an eye exam..”
‘Let’s put the old blood pressure cuff on your fin……seems to keep falling off…..you have high blood pressure…..maybe you can swim back in 20 minutes and we’ll try again.”
To be ripped to shreds by a healthy shark, or to be ripped to shreds by an unhealthy shark. A conundrum.
Not a very large increase in the study area, 18 miles. They were probably cruising through the water anyways to get to the next area.
This year the New Hampshire Dept. of Natural and Cultural Resources will be studying white sharks as they have joined the Consortium group. Ocearch is not a member of that group. -Tom
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