Posted on 03/22/2021 4:44:32 PM PDT by Capt. Tom
Cape Cod, Mass. — What would seem to be the collegial world of local shark research has in fact become a simmering feud between competing factions, with some saying the public is the loser because the research is not keeping up with great white's growing incursions on our local waters.
"We've never been shut out like this," said Chris Fischer, founder of OCEARCH, the research group that has been denied permits by the state for several years now. "What's happening here with sharks compared to the rest of the world is like it is in the dark ages."
OCEARCH roams the seas around the world, conducting high-profile research using its signature lift that hoists captured great whites out of the water, allowing scientists hands-on access to the animals.
But since 2014, Massachusetts has denied their requests to conduct research in state waters, which stretch from the shoreline to about three miles offshore.
"You basically have a Massachusetts white shark Mafia," Fischer said. "And nobody wants to believe that, especially when you got a cute little charismatic guy whipping out one-liners in the news."
OCEARCH’s Chris Fischer said there is a "Massachusetts white shark Mafia" that is squelching research here. He's referring to the state's high-profile shark scientist, Dr. Greg Skomal, who for years has been the genial face of great white shark expertise in Massachusetts and around the country.
Behind the scenes, thousands of pages of emails obtained by 5 Investigates show he has helped lead the opposition to OCEARCH, whom he and his colleagues accuse of "stealing" their research "to appease their sponsors," they write in one email.
"(T)hese guys will do anything to make money," another email said.
Internal emails obtained by 5 Investigates reveal a simmering turf war and deep mistrust among competing factions of shark researchers. On the surface, the state Division of Marine Fisheries has denied OCEARCH'S permit requests over objections to their research methods. In the past, OCEARCH has used chum to attract sharks, hooked them, towed them to their lift, and then raised them out of the water.
The state has said the chum used in state waters, which are closer to beaches, would be a public safety threat because it would lure sharks into the waters when they might otherwise not be so close. OCEARCH has said it will no longer use it and has otherwise defended its research methods as sound.
"Attracting, hooking, capturing, and releasing white sharks in Massachusetts waters near public high-use, shoreline areas will create risks to public safety I cannot accept," wrote DMF's director in a 2019 letter.
The state has also said that OCEARCH'S research has a "high potential" to interfere with a now-concluded population study of great whites that was led by the state and Skomal.
But the emails also reveal how personal the dispute has become.
"It would be good if your state police buddies ... buzzed the boat a bit," Skomal wrote in an email in 2019. The recipient's email address was redacted by the state.
OCEARCH has pushed back, complaining about a 2018 tweet from Skomal praising the Canadian government for doing "real white shark research," suggesting OCEARCH was not.
"Greg's Tweet is antagonistic, sad, immature," OCEARCH complained in an email to Ronald Amidon, Commissioner of the state Department of Fish and Game.
"This rant is truly amazing," Skomal wrote in a follow-up internal email.
Amidon, however, was not amused.
"This will not make our already difficult task of reviewing a permit application any easier," he wrote. "This is a JV-level antic! It must stop, now."
"I think (Skomal) just didn't want a bunch of other scientists coming in here that were, you know, much more competent, much more efficient that would really dilute him," Fischer said.
The state declined our request for an interview with Skomal or anyone else, and would only send a statement. It said that the Division of Marine fisheries collaborates with leading scientists to better understand sharks' movement, life history and population dynamics, which will, in turn, help the Commonwealth better protect the safety of residents and visitors.
But the dispute is also revealing a growing concern that there is not enough research into the growing white shark population off the Cape.
State Rep. Patrick Kearney, D-Scituate, supports OCEARCH because he is worried about the impact of the sharks on all the state's coastal communities.
"My concern is keeping people safe," he said. "Any university, any nonprofit that can teach us more about this increasing threat is something that's positive for Massachusetts."
State Rep. Patrick Kearney support’s OCEARCH’s efforts to conduct research within state waters. Heather Doyle feels the frustration, too. She helped form Cape Cod Ocean Community out of concern with what she felt was the lack of a substantive response to the growing presence of great whites off the Cape's beaches, a threat highlighted by the fatal attack on Arthur Medici in 2018 off a Wellfleet beach.
"The beaches are not safe. People are called out of the water constantly, hour after hour, beach after beach after beach," she said.
"We don't have any research that informs human safety, which is the thing we care the most about," she said.
Heather Doyle with Cape Cod Ocean Community says the state is not doing enough to promote research into the growing white shark population here. Whether OCEARCH belongs in Massachusetts waters or not, the emails also suggest another reason to explain why more isn't being done to study the great whites here: money, and lack of it.
A press aide is asking in one 2019 email for the amount of state funding set aside for shark research. It was information she wanted to pass on to a reporter.
"I don't believe there is any funding," came the reply. "We hope for funding in some way, but the governor's budget does not provide it."
Another prominent shark researcher was not surprised to hear about the lack of funding.
"The biggest misconception that people have about sharks and shark research is that there's lots of funding," said Chris Lowe, with the University of California Long Beach.
Lowe struggled to research great whites and their impact on humans along 500 miles of California coastline when he had only sporadic funding amounting to just a few tens of thousands of dollars a year.
Lowe, a native of Martha's Vineyard, says that all changed when the state of California stepped up with a $3.75 million grant.
"It has made all the difference in the world in terms of not just our research capacity, but our ability to work closely with lifeguards and our ability to communicate to the public," he said.
One local researcher who is frustrated by what he sees as the lack of access to state resources is Dr. Kristian Sexton. He specializes in optics technologies and his company, Moosh Systems, has been studying shark behavior since July of 2019 using drones. They presented their preliminary results at a conference in November, and anticipate publishing a peer reviewed journal in the coming months.
"We can determine shark swimming speeds, we can determine distances from shore. And all that information will help us understand how they behave along the coastline here," he said.
Dr. Kristian Sexton, a specialist in optics technology, useS drones to study shark behavior off Cape Cod, but says the state is not doing enough to promote outside researcher. But like others, he's been frustrated by what he says is the state's lack of interest in working with outside researchers.
"I don't think the Division of Marine Fisheries has done such unbelievable work here that we don't need other scientists," he said.
"Do you think there's a concerted effort to keep researchers away from the Cape?" 5 Investigates' Mike Beaudet asked him.
"There certainly isn't any anybody trying to draw them in," Sexton said.
The state has said the chum used in state waters, which are closer to beaches, would be a public safety threat because it would lure sharks into the waters when they might otherwise not be so close. OCEARCH has said it will no longer use it and has otherwise defended its research methods as sound.
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That is an assumption. I’d like to see the statistics on that. White Sharks are hunting Harbor Seals in Massachusetts waters. They are there already.
Some pinhead bureaucrat is painting pictures of fantasy shark researchers chumming near a bathing beach to alarm the public.
* * *
I share much the same perspective, rlmorel.
Born and raised on Cape Cod. My career as tech industry journalist was made in Massachusetts, to which I'm deeply grateful.
There's a hearty and intelligent stock of people who live in Massachusetts. But the Baizou spirit is strong there.
There's Martha's Vineyard, where many rich New Yorkers have come to settle thanks to DeBlasio turning NYC into a Covid19 gulag.
Add in: Kennedy-land, New England Patriots, the home of American Revolution, famous colleges, Big Tech/MIT, and the nickname given to the State: "The Hub of the Universe". These factors have created an elevated pride among its residents.
Combine that with the Irish political machine on Beacon Hill and the power of group think and Orwellian correctness, and you have the perfect storm of cocky, thick-headed and destructive policies.
Even the republicans who have come to power in the Bay State -- Mitt Romney, Bill Weld, and Charlie Baker -- would cause John Adams and Paul Revere to roll over in their graves.
The question is: which factor will destroy Cape Cod first: white sharks or crushing Covid19 restrictions that swallow up the Cape's tourist business.
As a citizen, I feel completely unrepresented, and have my entire adult life, which is perhaps why I pay more attention to national elections and their results.
This state is lost, it is in the thrall of Leftists, and they have done over the last forty years at the State level what the Left is now trying to do at the national level. They have made it impossible for a real conservative to win election in this state.
My father, who ran for local office back in the Seventies and Eighties, knew this full well. I believe he was a plank owner in Citizens for Limited Taxation, and was a conservative in every sense of the word.
But he knew he could not win any office as a Republican, so he ran as a Democrat, which at the time didn’t raise an eyebrow on me, but looking back, makes me laugh a bit.
I love this region. The weather. The museums. The History. The mountains. The beaches.
But I despise and detest the corrupt Leftist politicians and politics in this state. The reprehensible, criminal politicians in this state are like a Murderer’s Row (in the case of Ted Kennedy, a real Murdering Row) of Leftist Icons.
Kennedy. Kerry. Frank. Warren. Studds. Romney. So many more I can’t even name them.
Come on up to NH. We need a few more conservatives up here to balance out all the NY & NJ transplants that have moved here in the last few years.
I can suggest a few places depending how far you want to be out in the country.
IF you want to live in the lowest tax burden towns in the country I suggest you search in towns on the east side of the big lake(Moultonboro, Tuftonboro, Wolfeboro) or towns like Rye, North Hampton if you can afford them. These towns tax burden is primarily made by the people who own lake front and ocean front property. Do a search of lowest property taxes in NH.
I live farther inland where I pay a much higher tax rate on my home. This is because we have almost zero commercial real estate in our town.
The issue now is that the seals are spreading out throughout the Gulf of Maine now. Not just harbor seals but the bigger grey seals too. As the seals move north, the big sharks follow.
The only death last year was north of Boothbay, ME. This is where the water is much colder than the southern side of Cape Cod.
Just let me know if any are sighted off Brewster on the Bay side this summer :)
I took a ride out of Chatham Airport (A Breakfast destination, I think the chef is still the guy from Chatham Bars Inn) and you could see the seals on Monomoy getting a tan.
I remember, Citizens for Limited Taxation was one of the great victories of conservatives in Mass.
If your Dad was part of that, he accomplished something great.
No doubt white sharks can function in cold water.
Below is an excerpt from my shark website written about 7 years ago. -Tom
"Whites are worldwide, and tolerate a wider range of water temperatures than most other sharks, They function in water temperatures between the lower 40s and 80 degrees- so a hardy specimen could be here in mid -winter, as has happened in the past, when a white was gill netted in February 1938 off Plymouth, Mass. The whites tagged at Chatham Mass. from 2009, thru 2012 mostly wintered off Florida but some traveled up and down the east coast all winter."
LOL, it seems so...ancient now.
He was on the Board of Selectmen and School Board for a long time, and I got the distinct impression they didn’t like him because he was all about keeping costs down and not rubber-stamping increases.
He got a lot of nasty mail and phone calls.
wow! that looks to me like near Nauset beach and the National Seashore. In the 80’s and early 90’s there were no seals there at all. Of course the sharks are going to come... why wouldn’t they?
It seems to me eventually the warring politicians will have to figure out what is more important to protect the seals or the tourists.
Thanks for the information everyone..
I recall it was down south of Chatham in that little dribble of land coming off the elbow of Cape Cod.
I don’t believe I said thank you for that post-I mean it.
Being from the bluest of blue states, I always feel sympathy for our conservative friends in California, Oregon, and Seattle.
But they do exist there, in great numbers. But there, like the state I live in, they have honed the politics in the state where it is nearly impossible for anything better than a RINO to get elected.
They have done to my state, and those West Coast states, what they plan to do to the country as a whole if they have their way.
That is what HR-1 is a huge part of.
God help us.
Anyway, it is easy to feel one might have a hurdle as a “refugee” to overcome in conservative states because the citizens there would have good reason to view you as someone who crapped their bed, and now, instead of cleaning themselves up, want to continue their old ways and crap in theirs now.
Anyway, nice to read your positive post!
Thank you too.
I sincerely mean we need more conservatives in NH.
I moved here from WNY in 1985. It was the last RED New England state. It has slowly turned purple to light blue in the last 35 years.
Now, I believe we may have reached the point of no return.
Since covid we have seen a huge influx from NY, NJ and CT.
We have always had an influx from MA. However, many of the people from MA actually tended to be more conservative types.
They moved north to escape the political issues of the commonwealth. Now, many of the people are moving here because of the rural/suburban nature of our state, but bringing their liberal views with them. Almost every house in my area that has sold in the last year was to people from NY, NJ, CT, CA, MA. As soon as they moved in I saw Biden signs go up.
We are literally getting out voted now. Our Rino governor will probably announce today that he is running for US Senate. He is term limited(3) as governor. His ultimate goal is the White House. Sununu is part of the establishment. Just like his daddy. However, he is popular enough to probably beat Maggie Hassan. So, we may be better with a Rino Republican than a Democrat.
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