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Since first premiering in 1988, Discovery Channel's Shark Week — the annual, week-long scheduling of all things sharks — has become a phenomenon. The U.S. had 47 unprovoked shark bites in 2021, with Florida coming in first place with 28. Despite the proliferation of shark attacks in these parts of the country, 2022's Shark Week focuses on the waters around Cape Cod in Massachusetts, and viewers will discover something fascinating and unexpected about the area. There Are More White Sharks Off Cape Cod Than Ever Before Even though many sharks call the waters of the Atlantic Ocean home, many forget...

Like many a tourist, white sharks come to Cape Cod for the fresh seafood and sunny beaches. The sharks don't sunbathe on the sand but their favorite prey, gray seals, do and when seals venture back into the waves they become a target. “White sharks are feeding on seals in shallow water off Cape Cod,” Greg Skomal, the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries senior shark researcher, observed at the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy’s media day June 29 at its Chatham headquarters. “A predator prey relationship is natural in any system. We are studying various aspects of this behavior.” More:'Everyone going...

A pair of orcas killing great white sharks by ripping open their torsos for their livers — and as a result scaring away great whites from a South African region — has raised questions about whether that could happen along Cape Cod. But it’s “really too early to say” if killer whales will descend upon the Massachusetts coast and drive away the growing great white shark population, a local shark expert tells the Herald. “When there have been orca sightings here through the years, they’ve never really seemed to impact the white sharks in the area,” said John Chisholm, who...

More than 150,000 great white shark detections were recorded off of Cape Cod and along the coast of Massachusetts last year, according to the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy tagging tracker. The total count of 159,598 shark detections in 2021 was a record high for the sixth straight year in the Conservancy’s White Shark Logbook, which has detection data from as far back as 2010. The previous all-time high from 2020 was 136,135 detections. The Conservancy has continued to tag more sharks in the region every year, resulting in more detections each shark season. “The greater number of detections logged in...

While many are frightened of great white sharks, a majority of people believe they have control over whether they encounter the apex predators along Cape Cod. Tourists especially are taking actions to avoid shark encounters, but only a few Cape visitors have cut back on their beach trips because of sharks since a person was killed by a great white in Wellfleet four years ago. That’s according to a new survey released Monday about humans coexisting with sharks and seals along the Cape. Representative samples of Cape visitors, residents and commercial fishers — about 2,000 people in total — responded...

SHARK’S-EYE POINT OF VIEW New video tags allow researchers to hitch a ride with massive predators off Cape CHATHAM – If a picture is worth 1,000 words, shark researchers have found that a video can answer 1,000 questions. Atlantic White Shark Conservancy scientist Megan Winton was reviewing footage from the first year of video tagging when she came across a newly tagged great white shark that had just eaten a seal — telltale sign: seal intestines hanging from its gills — and was resting on the bottom of the ocean. Winton was initially disappointed they had missed the actual predation,...

Most of the great white sharks that hang around Cape Cod have started heading south toward warmer waters after another “very productive” research season. Shark scientists with the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy tagged dozens of the apex predators this year, bringing the researchers’ total to 279 sharks tagged in the last several years. During the fieldwork this shark season, Atlantic White Shark Conservancy researchers with the Division of Marine Fisheries put out 39 acoustic tags and 10 special CATs tags that give scientists a sharks’ eye view through video footage. “We got a lot accomplished, a lot of tags went...

Sharks and tourism at what cost? Joseph Troy, July 25, 1936 (Death) Ida Parker and Kristin Orr, September 4, 2014 Cleveland Bigelow, August 13, 2017 William Lytton, August 15, 2018 Arthur Medici, September 15, 2018 (Death) Julie Dimperio Holowach July 27, 2020 (Death) This is a list of people across New England that have had their lives significantly altered by 'encounters' with (great) white sharks. Some have survived the unprovoked attacks; others are no longer with us. Notice the distinctive increase in shark attacks in just a four-year period. The debate over how to respond to the dramatic increase in...

...snip.. Later, Sexton realized the brief session contained the unsolvable puzzle. The waters of Cape Cod were not going to be free of white sharks or people anytime soon, and for all of his work studying the predators, he could not answer the most basic question. “It was awesome to be in the water and to see her there,” he said. “But should we really be in the water? I don’t know.” Lanctot did not know either. “Felt really good to get back in the water,” she texted that evening. Then the old foreboding returned. By mid-October, peak season for...

It was only a few years ago that an anxiety started to enter the thoughts of most people in New England, when their recreational activities involved going into the ocean. The concern wasn’t the usual how cold will the water be. It was an increasing worry about a white shark "encounter" - or "incident" - or "attack", depending on the level of their anxiety. The fear of sharks, or large flesh-eating land animals, snakes, rodents, etc. is built into of the makeup of most people. That is understandable and helps our species survive. White shark article writers seem to want...

New Englanders can expect to have a bigger than ever white shark news season ahead in 2021. Two of the reasons being the existing numbers of seal and white sharks will continue to grow and spread throughout New England, and that will remain unabated, because both species are federally protected, and both are still thriving. Another reason is at the end of 2020 a group of biologists formed a new white shark consortium. So, you can expect more information to be coming from this expanded group of shark biologists. The newly formed consortium consists of the original two groups, the...

Why are there so many white sharks here now? What happened? It wasn’t like this before. Remember the movie JAWS, the movie that left you with a gnawing feeling that if you were frolicking in the white shark’s domain something bad might happen to you? That has become a reality for some Massachusetts’s beachgoers. They are experiencing recent interactions with white sharks, resulting in attacks causing hospitalizations, close calls, and a fatal attack in 2018. Why are there so many white sharks here now? What happened? It wasn’t like this before. Basically, it is because seals, and their predators the...

Almost a year after a woman was fatally attacked by a great white shark while swimming in a cove in Harpswell, the state is nearly tripling the number of acoustic shark detectors in the waters along Maine’s coast. Following the fatal July 27, 2020, attack, the state Department of Marine Resources deployed eight acoustic receivers in coastal waters, spread out between Wells and Popham Beach, after it had already placed three in Saco Bay off Old Orchard Beach. The receivers, 11 in total, recorded pings from sharks that had been tagged with transmitters by researchers who are collecting data about...

The Atlantic White Shark Conservancy is launching aerial cameras to watch great white sharks hunt seals. Cape Cod shark researchers say it’s rare for them to see sharks attacking seals and they’re hoping to get a better glimpse into great whites’ hunting behavior this summer. The Cape shark scientists are launching aerial cameras to get a good look at the sharks hunting seals close to shore. The researchers will be setting up the fixed camera system off Orleans’ Nauset Beach to start. “It allows us to get direct observations of what these sharks are doing when they’re in shallow water,...

White Shark Research Sharks in New England The Northwest Atlantic Ocean is home to a variety of marine species, and sharks are no exception. From the large filter-feeding basking shark to the small bottom-dwelling spiny dogfish, sharks of all shapes and sizes can be found inhabiting the waters of New England. Perhaps the most notorious and charismatic of these fishes, however, is the white shark. White sharks are classified as a highly migratory species, traveling large distances in search of optimal foraging and mating opportunities. Their presence in New England is historically documented, and they are most often observed during...

Cape lifeguards told people to get out of the water for the second straight day Sunday, as great white shark sightings start to pick up along the shore just in time for the official start of summer. Cape Cod National Seashore lifeguards at Truro’s Head of the Meadow Beach blew their whistles late Sunday morning with the appearance of a shark offshore. “A temporary no-swimming order has been issued by CCNS Lifeguards at Head of the Meadow beach,” the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy’s Sharktivity app alert reads. “Beach-only activities permitted,” the shark alert continues. “This order will expire after one...

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...

This beach season, every week is Shark Week. Professional shark taggers warn there are at least four great whites lurking off Long Island and New Jersey en route to Cape Cod – with a 600-pounder named Rose and a monster 16-foot, 3,456-pounder called Mary Lee right behind them. “Right now the sharks are loading up on dog fish, seals and blubber over the summer,” said Chris Fischer, the founder of the Ocearch research foundation. Osearch has tagged 70 sharks, but they represent a tiny portion of the maneaters out there. “There are thousands of them on the East Coast right...

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...

The population of Atlantic great white sharks around Massachusetts ’ Cape Cod peninsula has increased significantly, researchers say. A total of 118 individual great white sharks were detected in 2020 off the coast by the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy , up from only 11 in 2013. And the total number of recorded shark detections in the same period has jumped from 10,803 to 134,631. Scientists say that back in 2010 only three acoustic receivers were used, compared to 65 last year. “It’s important to remember that the receivers can only detect sharks tagged with acoustic transmitters, and there are still...