Posted on 05/22/2021 3:18:30 PM PDT by Capt. Tom
The Atlantic White Shark Conservancy has launched an online archive that reveals where hundreds of great white sharks have visited along the Cape each year.
The new online tool, called the “White Shark Logbook,” helps people see the historical detection data for tagged white sharks along Cape Cod.
The White Shark Logbook provides users with data from 2010 to 2020, while the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy’s Sharktivity app is for real-time sighting and detection data.
The new logbook that includes information on 208 individual sharks and 583,092 overall detections gives a breakdown of where the great white sharks have been in Cape waters by month and by year. People can also learn some biographical information about each shark.
The leader for the most detections along the Cape is James — a 14-foot male — with 25,140 overall detections. The most popular place for James to hang out has been off the coast of Chatham, with 2,561 detections there in 2016. That favorite spot for James is identified with a large, red bubble on the app.
“I love that the logbook provides a platform that allows people to learn more about the individual white sharks that visit Cape Cod each year,” said Megan Winton, a research scientist with the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy.
The data available through the logbook has been collected by acoustic receivers, which detect and record the presence of more than 200 individual white sharks that have been tagged with acoustic transmitters by the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries since 2010.
There are now more than 100 acoustic receivers deployed off the coast of Massachusetts each year.
“In the logbook, you can see where tagged white sharks were detected, learn more about individual white sharks that inhabit our waters, and get an idea of where activity is concentrated in a relative sense,” Winton said.
“It’s important to remember that the receivers can only detect sharks tagged with acoustic transmitters, and there are still a lot of white sharks out there that haven’t been tagged,” she added. “As scientists, we use the data collected from tagged sharks to give us an idea of what the population is doing as a whole.”
The detection data shows two clear takeaways, Winton said: White shark activity is highest along Cape Cod, and the Outer Cape in particular, where seal densities are highest; and white sharks have been detected all along the coast of Massachusetts — they don’t occur exclusively off of Cape Cod.
The app “should not be interpreted as advice as to what beaches or parts of water are safe,” the website reads. “The only way to completely prevent a close encounter with a shark is to stay on shore.”
That is what a lot of people don't realize, and feel safe at a beach using a "real time" shark alert buoy. . -Tom
Martha’s Vineyard?
Alex Kintner was unavailable for comment.
If only we were so lucky.
I’m more concerned about the two-legged sharks around the Cape.
Neither was Pippit.
See where great white sharks go the most each year
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Sounds like the punch line from a Gary Larson cartoon.
Try and eat all the leftists on it....and then go attack Martha’s Vineyard, where all the other rich leftists live!!!!
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