Figure rises for second consecutive year, says Massachusetts’ top shark expert, warning of ‘public safety issue’ despite no deaths in state’s waters since 1936

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

Great white sharks are swimming toward the waters off Massachusetts in rising numbers, scientists say, after a second consecutive year showing an increase in predators to Cape Cod.

The latest data from a multiyear study of the ocean predators found that the number of sharks in waters off the vacation haven appeared to be on the rise, said Greg Skomal, a senior scientist with the Massachusetts division of marine fisheries, and the state’s top shark expert.

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The sharks are after seals, not humans, and towns are using the information from the study to keep it that way. “How long does it stay and where does it go are the questions we’re trying to answer,” Skomal said. “But for the towns, it’s a public safety issue.”

Researchers using a plane and boats spotted 147 individual white sharks last summer. That was up slightly from 2015, but significantly more than the 80 individual sharks spotted in 2014, the first year of the study, funded by the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy.

More than half the white sharks spotted last summer had not previously been documented by this study.

Researchers have also tagged more than 100 to track their movements.

The white shark population was probably significantly larger, because the scientists could not possibly spot all of them, Skomal said.

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Two of the more interesting findings are the increasing number of young sharks, and that they appear to be swimming farther afield.

“Last summer, we saw greater numbers of smaller sharks, including juveniles, and that tells us that the population is rebuilding,” Skomal said.

Great whites, made famous in the 1975 movie Jaws, about a monstrous shark that terrorizes a fictional New England resort town, journey to Cape Cod waters every year to feast on seals. Once hunted to near extinction, the now protected seals have rebounded in great numbers.

The seals used to be concentrated at the Monomoy wildlife refuge, off limits to humans, but as they have moved farther north, so have the sharks, Skomal said.

The risk of a swimmer being attacked by a shark is minimal. Cape Cod towns would like to ensure that continues to be the case.

The last documented fatal great white shark attack in Massachusetts waters was in 1936, Skomal said. In 2012, a man bitten while swimming off Truro required 47 stitches and surgery to repair damaged tendons. In 2014, two young women kayaking off Plymouth were attacked, although neither was bitten.

Nathan Sears, the natural resources manager in Orleans, said the study was invaluable and was already prompting changes in how the town managed its beaches.

The town used to fly dangerous marine life flags with a picture of shark on them only when they knew there was a shark in the area. Now, he said, the town flew the flag every day during the tourist season.

“The fact that they have an eye on the situation from the air is crucial,” he said. “And if they spot a shark in the swimming area, we’ll close the beach.”