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Patricia E. Kelly photo |
From "JAWS": Hooper: "Well, this is not a boat accident! And it wasn't any propeller; and it wasn't any coral reef; and it wasn't Jack the Ripper! It was a shark!" |
In (2008) a 7 foot white shark washed ashore on Nantucket. |
Wayne Davis took this photo of a white shark off Chatham, MA on Labor Day weekend, 2008. |
Updated white shark information. Seeing a white shark in New England is rare only because they are few in numbers, and not because they would be a stray visitor. New England is in their normal range and they are on the increase. In the last 10 years reports started to come in on a regular basis about shark sightings off the growing seal colony at Chatham, Mass. I received some very descriptive e- mails from various sources, recounting what they saw there - seals being attacked by a large fish. This is one indicator of a white shark presence. Eyewitness stories of shark predations on seals started to show up in the newspapers and on Television. But could it be other species such as makos, tiger sharks or killer whales involved in these Chatham seal predations? Where were the photos of the sharks? Biologists familiar with sharks, inspected some of the mutilated seal carcasses that washed ashore at Chatham Mass., and deemed some to be the result of marauding white shark predations. |
In this photo, pilot Wayne Davis has captured the white shark tagging operation at Chatham, Mass. - Five whites were tagged in 2009, and another eight in 2010. |
Photographic proof of white sharks at Chatham. A tuna spotter pilot Wayne Davis, returning to Chatham airport on Labor Day weekend 2008, spotted a large shark about 200 yds off the beach. Wayne is an experienced spotter pilot who realized it was not a basking shark; he turned around and went back for a better look. After observing the shark, he determined it was a white shark; and took several photos. Marine biologists later examined the photos and identified it as a white shark. I saw one of those photos; and it was indeed a white, Carcharodon carcharias. The spotter pilot called a Cape Cod Newspaper and told them about the sighting, and told them that he had photographic proof that it was a white shark. Here is part of Wayne's e-mail to me: “I reported it to the (newspaper) and they said they weren't interested 'cuz they'd done a few stories this summer already about people witnessing shark on seal attacks around Chatham. I thought the (newspaper) response was very strange, not only 'cuz I had a photo to go with the report, but because there were 6-10 surfers less than a mile south of the shark....& the shark was swimming SOUTH.” Strange indeed. I wonder if you called a local newspaper and told them of a local unusual car accident that had just occurred and that you were an eyewitness, and had photos; if they would say they weren't interested in the story, because they'd done a few stories already about previous automobile accidents. I suspect we have life imitating art on Cape Cod. Remember the scene in “Jaws” where Mayor Vaughn is concerned about the Police Chief Martin Brody panicking the beachgoers with shark talk. "Martin, it's all psychological. You yell barracuda, everybody says, "Huh? What?" You yell shark, we've got a panic on our hands on the Fourth of July." Only in this case it was Labor Day weekend 2008. |
A shark slowly cruising along at just half of our walking speed could easily cover 40 or more miles in a day; therefore any whites seen in one location could easily show up many miles away a day or so later. Satellite tagged white sharks show they can cover 75 miles in a day while moving from one area to another. |
A white shark named “Gretel” was stranded for over a week while in the Lackey Bay estuary near Naushon Island off Woods Hole in late September 2004. That location is about 9 miles south of where Joseph Troy Jr. was fatally attacked in 1936. |
George Breen flying the plane- Billy Chaprales doing the tagging while Nick Chaprales runs the boat. Onboard - Dr.Greg Skomal and John Chisholm who supplied and programed the tags. |
White sharks tagged at Chatham, Mass. September, 2009 The tags used were Pop-up Satellite Archival Transmitting Tags (PSAT) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- How the Chatham white sharks were spotted and tagged. Sept. 2, 2009- Pilot George Breen spotted two large sharks off Monomoy. (Chatham Mass.) The sharks were later identified that day by Mass. Senior Fisheries biologist Dr. Greg Skomal as white sharks. Sept 5, 2009 - State biologists Dr. Greg Skomal , John Chisholm and fishermen Billy Chaprales and Nick Chaprales were able to get pop- up tags into two white sharks off Chatham close to shore. A third much larger white about 15 feet long eluded the tagging after they followed it in shallow water for hours. Spotter pilot George Breen assisted them in locating the sharks. Sept. 8, 2009: Three more white sharks were tagged at Chatham, including a 15 footer, bringing the total to 5 tagged sharks. There were no more pop-up tags available after the 5 were used up. Sept.10, 2009 There are at least seven more, and possibly nine more untagged sharks at Monomoy bringing the total to 12 -14 different white sharks that were in the same area off Monomoy. ----- |
taken 8/27/10 15nm ESE of Chatham inlet |
spotter pilot Wayne Davis in his citabria |
A tagged white shark |
The Mass. Div. of Marine Fisheries Shark Research program has kept records of reported white shark sightings since 1987. In 2008 they confirmed 5 white shark sightings out of 19 reported. In 2009, five white sharks were tagged at Chatham, MA, and in 2010 eight more were tagged. Other whites were seen but not tagged. The 2009 taggings showed the white sharks went to northern Florida in the winter. There have been several accidental catches of white sharks in Massachusetts Bay, and off Cape Cod, in the last 12 years involving bottom set fishing gear. The most recent ones that I know of were a 12-foot white in October 2007, and one at least 18 feet long on November 24, 2007, and another large white on Dec 18, 2010 . All were taken close to shore off Cape Cod, north of where the white sharks were tagged off Chatham. None of the caught whites were tagged sharks. |
In 2010, 8 white sharks were tagged off Chatham MA The tag is programmed to release in April, 2011 The red on the tag tether is chafing gear. |
Welcome to NewEnglandSharks.com Links to other pages are at the bottom of each page. |
Jan4, 2011 An e- mail to me from Florida: FYI - the white sharks have showed up down here. The first large shark was spotted by a headboat last week about 22 miles ESE of Ponce Inlet, FL in 90' of water. It followed a black sea bass to the surface as it was being reeled up. |
December 18, 2010 an enormous dead white shark is brought up in a fishing net off Chatham Mass. This happened north of Coast Guard Beach. - Tom |
White shark tagging 2010. |
The boat is 35 feet long, the white shark is at least half the length of the boat. 2010-off Chatham Mass. |
White Shark Fork length in feet Weight in pounds 16' --3,300 15' --2,700 14' --2,175 13' --1,725 12' --1,350 11' --1,025 10' ----775 Fork length in feet Weight in pounds |
Capt. Bruce Sweet of SWEET DREAM III Sportfishing catches a white shark, while tuna fishing on the west side of Stellwagen Bank, in Mass. Bay, on June 26, 2010. The shark was tagged and released. |
This shark was lost to research because the Federal rules prohibit you from having one in your possesion. At present there is not a clear path to Fed Law Enforcement to get permission to bring it in, and have biologists examine it. Hopefully that problem will be worked out in 2011. - Tom |
http://www.cpfcharters.com |
For more info on white sharks in New England go to the White Shark page. |
The last fatal shark attack in New England happened on July 25, 1936 at Hollywood Beach , Mattapoisett Mass. The attack occurred "a baseball throw off the end of the pier" shown in this photo. The full story of the attack is on the white shark page. - tom Photo by George Haley 2/22/2012 |