Free Republic

New shark center exhibit looks at ‘villain’ portrayal Explores ‘Jaws’ effect A new exhibit at the Cape Cod shark center explores how great white sharks are portrayed in the media and movies, as the apex predators have been painted as “villains” for decades. The Atlantic White Shark Conservancy recently unveiled the “White Sharks in the Media and Public Perception” exhibit at the Chatham Shark Center. “We want people to take a moment and reflect on how books and movies have portrayed sharks as villains in our oceans. The ‘Jaws’ effect,” said Marianne Long, education director at the Atlantic White Shark...

A fear of great whites? Shark center aims to show fact vs. fiction Jason SavioCape Cod Times There’s an 18-foot shark hanging in the air, waiting to greet you at the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy Shark Center in Chatham the next time you visit. “Curly” is a life-sized replica of the largest recorded white shark tagged off Cape Cod. It’s one of many new features added to the Shark Center during a “pretty big renovation” that took place in winter 2020, says center manager Heather Ware. The center is an arm of the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy, which has a...

More tags bring fuller picture of movements off shore The total number of great white sharks detected along the Cape has ballooned over the last few years as researchers continue to tag more of the apex predators each summer season. Going back to 2013, there were only 11 individual sharks detected by the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy off the Massachusetts coast, according to archived data from its new white shark logbook. Then jumping ahead seven years to 2020, the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy detected 118 individual sharks last year. The total number of recorded shark detections has also climbed at...

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...

CHATHAM – The Atlantic White Shark Conservancy wrapped up their tagging season a few weeks ago, but researchers still have a lot of work ahead. The winter months bring with them plenty of work to be completed and data to be analyzed. “The winter is actually an incredibly important and productive time for us,” said Megan Winton, a staff scientist with the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy. “Right now we are processing all the videos that we collected over the summer, we are analyzing tagging data that the Division of Marine Fisheries has been collecting over the past almost decade,” she...

In 2014, the Division of Marine Fisheries (DMF) began a 5-year study, in collaboration with the University of Massachusetts School for Marine Science and Technology (SMAST). The goal of the study is to estimate white shark population size and local abundance using traditional and innovative mark-recapture techniques. ..snip... DMF has been the beneficiary of unprecedented support for white shark research from AWSC. The Conservancy is a private, non-profit organization based in Chatham, MA. AWSC supports scientific research, public education, conservation efforts, and public safety initiatives related to white sharks. Since 2013, AWSC has loaned and donated services and equipment in...