Last year the first white shark was not spotted until June 22, although according to Skomal, in years past tagged sharks have been detected on receiver buoys as early as Memorial Day. The predation was observed 300 yards off the shoreline, according to a social media post from the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy. On Thursday, researchers from the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy (AWHC) and the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries hit the waters off Cape Cod in search of white sharks.
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Shark researchers detected Scratchy Thursday in Shark Cove, off South Monomoy Island.
You’re on the go! A bloody photo taken today by shark researchers with the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy and the Mass. Division of Marine Fishers appears to show the aftermath of a great white shark eating a seal off Monomoy.
Scientists are now anxious that Cape Code could become a new home for sharks because of the generous food source represented by the seals.
In the last few years, the sharks have returning in their droves after hundreds of years due to the amount of seals now present around Monomoy Island.
From 2009 to 2015, officials have tagged about 80 great white sharks off the coast of Cape Cod.
A total of 19 sharks were tagged off the MA coast in last year’s shark season, which suggests there should be many more to come in the following weeks.
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The shark was previously tagged in 2014 and still has an electronic tracker so that scientists from the Massachusetts Marine Fisheries Department can monitor its movement. Although they didn’t see any white sharks, they did pick up some activity on receivers deployed off Chatham, according to a AWSC release. Skomal tags the sharks with acoustic tags, which are picked up by the receivers each time the shark passes. “It was detected on a device capable of reading the shark’s tag from a long distance”.
