Posted on 08/24/2019 6:50:32 PM PDT by Capt. Tom
In February, the Ocearch team was denied a state permit to catch and tag great white sharks in state waters. In his letter denying the application, David Pierce, director of the state Division of Marine Fisheries, cited concerns with the team fishing for great whites in an area near public beaches.
Without that permit, Ocearch, which has a federal research permit to catch, tag and collect biological samples from white sharks, was anchored outside state waters, 4½ miles off Nantucket.
At the same time the bait on seven lines of Ocearch buoys and hooks was going untouched, beaches along the Outer Cape were being closed to swimming as white sharks hunted seals in shallow water close to shore. State researchers already have tagged more than 20 white sharks this summer in those waters.
With only one shark tagged in the first two weeks of a three-week stay, the Ocearch goal of adding 17 tagged sharks to bring the total number over 60, a number scientists thought would make research statistically significant, would likely have wait for another year.
(Excerpt) Read more at capecodtimes.com ...
They have a platform boat that raises the fish out of the water so a crew of biologist's can get measurements and samples for scientific research, and return the shark safely back into the water.
IMHO a disadvantage I believe they have, is they don't use a spotter plane. -Tom
This is a shame. The more we know about these animals the better. People thrashing around in the surf look like seals feeding and swimming. The Great Whites are a risk a swimmer assumes until we find a way to move the seals out. Predators seek food. It’s their job.
“This is a shame. The more we know about these animals the better. People thrashing around in the surf look like seals feeding and swimming. The Great Whites are a risk a swimmer assumes until we find a way to move the seals out. Predators seek food. It’s their job.”
Children playing in a park look like rabbits to the wolves. Wolves are a risk young park goers assume until we find a way to move out the rabbits. Predators seek food. It’s their job.
We at least have biologists off their asses and out of their labs and out on the water now. - Tom
We had wolves moved out of the west. Azzholes went and paid Canada to get some to bring to the states. Haven’t heard of them attacking children but coyotes do and mountains lions do too. It’s why we hunt them here in the west.
Nantucket. I hope I wasn’t paying for their hotel room.
I’d bet everything that I have in the bank (which isn’t much) that the CAP pilots would volunteer to be “aerial shark spotters”, IF they were asked.
(To paraphrase a Bible verse: “Those who ask not, neither do they receive.”)
Fyi, we Texas Master Naturalists ask the CAP for help in our various conservation projects & they never say “NO”, to my personal knowledge.
Both the GREYHOUND UNDERGROUND & FAST FRIENDS also uses CAP aircraft to move “off the track” adoptable greyhounds around the USA, too.
Yours, TMN78247
Great White Sharks have contributed so much to this world.
Their work in medicine, music and physics is amazing.
They also like to eat people.
The band "Great White", not so much.
Whites are not usually a surface fish and stay down and may not be seen. Unlike at the seal colonies where the seals are onshore and the adjacent water is shallow and the white shark can easily be seen from above in the shallow adjacent water. - Tom
Mark
Ocearch has a bigger boat, a 126 foot Alaskan Crabber. -Tom
...!!!!
The funny thing though is that predators don’t just seek food, they seek game.
A lot of predators learned to fear man when we culled them. Hunting pressure and death at the hands of man kept most predators wary of man and made them keep their distance.
When we stop hunting predators, they lose their fear of man. We may not be on the food chain, but we quit hunting preedators at our own risk. Doing so makes them lose their fear of man. I’m not saying we need to exterminate entire species, and I’m not saying it works on sharks, but hunting wolves, bears, cougars and the like keeps them wary and fearful of man instead of losing their fear.
“I’m not saying we need to exterminate entire species, and I’m not saying it works on sharks, “
I’m saying we should hunt and kill sharks.
And seals.
One guy already got eaten alive.
It’s going to happen again.
Off topic a bit, but I’ve never had Alaskan crabs. Having said that, as long as there’s food in the water, there will be issues. I believe there will always be issues occasionally, but increase the number of prey and viola more predators, reduce the numbers of natural prey and the predator will find a new food source. Once the Whites establish a hunting territory I figure there will be a lag time even if seal poulations are reduced. The longer this goes the longer the lag time, to reduce the Great White numbers hunting close to shore. Not an easy answer around but reducing seal numbers might be a start. Reducing the Great Whites too. When it gets into the political area it really goes to hell. IMO
Aside from teaching and administration, does Pierce have any “hands on” experience to speak of in his field of study?
Not really my point. Bring more prey to an area get more predators. No hunting and the numbers go up of each. The opportunities for interactions goes up. Watch the newspapers for grizzlies interacting with humans. More people, less natural prey, more humans in the area. This ain’t rocket science.
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