State officials cite use of bait by Ocearch and safety concerns, including two great white shark attacks last summer on Cape Cod, one of them a fatality in Wellfleet.

Massachusetts officials have denied Chris Fischer and his research organization Ocearch a shark research permit to work in state waters for 2019.

In a Feb. 8 letter to Fischer, state Division of Marine Fisheries Director David Pierce cited two great white shark attacks last summer on Cape Cod, including a fatality Sept. 15 at Newcomb Hollow Beach in Wellfleet, and safety concerns with Ocearch’s proposed use of baited hooks to catch and tag sharks.

“(T)he protection of public safety is the paramount consideration of (Division of Marine Fisheries) when reviewing proposals to conduct research on white sharks in waters under the jurisdiction of the Commonwealth, especially in proximity to popular beach areas where people are using them to swim, wade, surf, etc.,” Pierce wrote.

Fischer uses the OCEARCH, a converted 126-foot Bering Sea crab vessel, as a mother ship. The larger boat carries a smaller vessel of less than 30 feet in length that is deployed with a crew of fishermen to catch a great white on a baited circle hook that is shaped to be easily retrieved with minimal harm to the fish. Once caught, the shark is led onto a platform that is lowered from the side of the main vessel, and is lifted out of the water so that biological information and samples can be taken and sophisticated tags attached. Within 15 minutes, the shark is back in the water and released.

Through their work, researchers gather real-time tracking data, water temperature and depth, fine scale movements, along with genetic information and other biological samples that can help determine what the shark eats, a migration pattern, and habitat information. Ocearch tags have produced some surprises, including changes to assumptions that white sharks migrated south in the winter and came north only when the water warmed. One shark, equipped with a satellite tag, came north one winter and nearly crossed the Atlantic before turning back.

Ocearch first came to waters off Cape Cod in 2012, but remained outside the state’s three-mile jurisdiction while tagging sharks. They were allowed to work inside state waters the next year, alongside Division of Marine Fisheries shark researcher Gregory Skomal.

But in 2016, the vessel was again forced to remain in federal waters when the organization's research permit was denied. Skomal was in the third year of a five-year population study and Pierce and other scientists were concerned that allowing another shark research vessel inside state waters might jeopardize the integrity of the data. Skomal works with the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy to tag sharks around the Cape using a harpoon with a detachable head, and does not use bait. Pierce denied all other permit applications during the study.

Fischer, who holds a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration permit to conduct his tagging work and carries scientists from various universities and research institutions on his vessel, felt the fears his work would interfere with Skomal's efforts were misplaced and his operation and Skomal’s study could co-exist. At the time he called for an independent peer-reviewed approach to granting state permits.

With the field work and tagging finished on Skomal’s population study, Pierce said in September that his agency would again consider applications for great white shark research. In an email Monday, Pierce said he has not received any other applications so far this year.

In his application Fischer had proposed catching, tagging and releasing 21 great whites. Fischer’s crew caught and tagged six great whites in federal waters in 2016 and he said they would return this year without the state permit and remain outside the three mile limit again.

On its website, Ocearch says it has tagged 330 animals, including various shark species, alligators, seals, dolphins, sea turtles and whales since 2007 at sites all over the world.

Skomal and his research team have tagged 159 great white sharks around Cape Cod since 2009, and have identified 350 individuals. As many as 1,000 individual great white sharks may have visited the Cape during the period covered by the population study, according to Skomal.

— Follow Doug Fraser on Twitter:@dougfrasercct.