Saving Seafood

Great white sharks rule Cape Cod waters

August 1, 2019 — Scientists have begun a new research program around Cape Cod in Massachusetts, focusing on movements and behavior of a growing great white shark population, to reduce the increasing potential for interactions with humans.

Atlantic white sharks are the center of attention in the frenetic Cape Cod summer tourism season, as the combined resurgence of their primary food source, gray seals, and the shark population plays out.

The shark season has been early and active, with numerous sightings and several temporary beach closings ordered as a result in July. It’s been just one year since two shark attacks off cape beaches resulted in the first recorded fatal shark attack in Massachusetts since 1936 when a body board rider was killed.

Barnstable County towns have invested in better warning and communication systems, pre-position first aid trauma kits and equipment to be prepared for another attack. One Nantucket-based group even asked local officials to seek federal action for changing the seals’ legal status under the Marine Mammal Protection Act — an echo of demands years ago in New England and Canada for the animals be culled in hunts.

Instead the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, the nonprofit Atlantic White Shark Conservancy based at Chatham, Mass. and other partners are in a new push to expand their study of white shark movements and behavior, with an emphasis on improving public safety in nearshore waters and channels where the animals hunt seals.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Climate Change and its Effect on Our Coastal Ecosystem

July 16, 2019 — Climate change and rapidly warming water mean a major impact on our coastal ecosystem.

The North Atlantic shelf, which includes our Connecticut shoreline and extends all the way up to the coastal waters of Canada, is warming faster 99 percent faster than our global oceans. Scientists are concerned for what the future holds.

“There’s a lot of concern about what climate change can do. The Gulf of Maine which is an incredibly productive body of water which includes Cape Cod and parts North is warming at an alarming rate. And it will be interesting to see how that changes the distribution of both the predator and prey,” said Dr. Greg Skomal of the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries.

In the case of great white sharks, climate change will likely affect the prey before the predator.

Read the full story at NBC Connecticut

Shark-infested waters: The ‘new normal’ on Cape Cod

July 3, 2019 — Lifeguards on Tuesday spotted a shark near the shore on Cape Cod and shut down a Wellfleet beach for an hour — the “new normal” for the popular tourist destination, less than a year after the first fatal shark attack there since 1936.

A great white shark lingered 40 yards off Marconi Beach in Wellfleet on Tuesday afternoon, according to the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy. Lifeguards closed the beach for one hour after the sighting — during one of the busiest Cape weeks of the year.

“It’s the new normal now,” said Tom King, a shark expert from Scituate. “For generations, everyone’s gone down to the beach and frolicked around in the salt water, going in and out of the water without any concerns. There were no sharks here.

“Now, we have company,” he added.

On Monday, at least 11 white sharks were spotted by the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy research team on Cape Cod Bay. Researcher Greg Skomal tagged two of the sharks — a 9-footer and a 10-footer — the first sharks tagged this year.

Then on Tuesday, the senior biologist at the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries tagged a 12 1/2-foot white shark about a mile off Nauset Beach in Orleans.

Read the full story at The Boston Herald

Sharks and seals: A success story on Cape Cod

July 1, 2019 — Eighteen years ago, charter boat captain Joseph Fitzback and his customers held on tight as a 14-foot great white stripped a striped bass off a fishing line, then rocked the boat with a couple of exploratory bumps, 2 miles off Chatham’s Lighthouse Beach.

Television crews and reporters lined up to interview Fitzback, but as the numbers of seals, and the sharks pursuing them, have increased, such interactions are almost commonplace. In a relatively short time the Cape has evolved from ocean playground to wilderness experience, and today Fitzback’s story might get little more than a few hits on social media.

By now, the first of perhaps hundreds of great whites, the largest such aggregation on the East Coast, have returned to the Cape for the summer from their winter grounds to the south. They are hunting a gray seal population that has exploded from almost zero in the 1970s to nearly 30,000, possibly as many as 50,000, today, depending on the science you choose to believe.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

Watching Whales Sensibly for Ten Years June 26, 2019

June 27, 2019 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

As humpback whales make their way back to New England and Mid-Atlantic waters from their winter breeding grounds, whale watch companies’ seasons are swinging into high gear along the Atlantic coast. Marine wildlife viewing tours are one of the highest revenue-producing tourism industries in the northeast, with more than one million whale watchers in New England alone.

This year we are celebrating the 10th anniversary of Whale SENSE, a program that promotes responsible whale watching practices and ocean conservation. The goal of Whale SENSE is to allow people to experience these majestic creatures in their natural habitat, while respecting their space and not interfering with their natural behaviors.

Whale SENSE began in 2009 with three Cape Cod, Massachusetts companies. NOAA Fisheries Greater Atlantic Region, Whale and Dolphin Conservation, and Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary developed the program, in which whale watch companies agree to annual training of all naturalists and captains, an annual evaluation of the company’s behavior around whales, and completion of an annual stewardship project.

Participants in the program use a Whale SENSE logo on their promotional materials, and are listed on the Whale SENSE website. By choosing a Whale SENSE company, passengers know that they are making a responsible choice that benefits the whales and the marine environment as a whole.

Read the full release here

New Study to Aims to Keep Beachgoers Safe From Great Whites

June 20, 2019 — Researchers on Cape Cod are launching a new study focused on the hunting and feeding habits of the region’s great white sharks following last year’s two attacks on humans.

Greg Skomal, a state marine biologist leading the effort, says the hope is to contribute critical information to the ongoing debate over how to keep Cape beachgoers safe.

The new research calls for placing sophisticated tags on sharks to track their swimming speed, depth and body position in the water.

Read the full story at NBC Boston

New study to examine feeding habits of Cape Cod great whites

June 19, 2019 — Researchers on Cape Cod are launching a new study focused on the hunting and feeding habits of the region’s great white sharks following last year’s two attacks on humans, including the state’s first fatal one in more than 80 years.

The hope is that the work, which starts in the coming days, contributes critical information to the ongoing debate over how to keep Cape beachgoers safe, said state marine biologist Greg Skomal, who has been studying the region’s great whites for years and is leading the new effort.

“If we can figure out how, where and when these sharks are attacking seals, we may be able to see if there is a pattern or any predictability to it,” he said. “That’s really useful information for someone trying to manage their beach and enhance public safety. If there are hot spots that can be identified, we certainly want to share that information with the public.”

Cape Cod officials have been wrestling with how to respond to public concern in the aftermath of last year’s attacks. A New York man was badly mauled by a shark last August off a beach in Truro but survived. Then weeks later a Massachusetts man was killed by a shark while boogie boarding in nearby Wellfleet.

Read the full story at The Gloucester Daily Times

Researchers to Begin New Study on White Shark Behavior

June 6, 2019 — The Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries five-year white shark population study is nearing completion and scientists will begin a new wave of research off Cape Cod this summer.

Since 2014, research led by state marine biologist Dr. Greg Skomal has been conducted to get a more accurate picture of how many sharks spend their summers in waters off the Cape.

Results from the five-year study are expected to be released soon.

The Atlantic White Shark Conservancy, in collaboration with DMF, will start several projects that are focused on getting a better understanding of the predatory behavior of white sharks in the region.

“The big focus now is to get better information to inform public safety practices,” said Megan Winton, a staff scientist with the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy.

“The best way we can do that at this point is to learn more about what these animals are doing in the waters off of the coast.”

The research conducted over the next five years will be a continuation of the previous population study.

“Now the focus is to really get as many tags on animals as we can to get a better idea of what the population is doing as a whole off of our coast,” Winton said.

Atlantic White Shark Conservancy CEO Cynthia Wigren said it is critical to get a better idea of hunting and feeding behavior from a public safety perspective.

“If sharks are feeding at certain times of the day or stages of the tide, for example, we can use that information to identify periods when the risk of interactions between sharks and recreational water users may be highest,” Wigren said.

Read the full story at CapeCod.com

Sound barrier to chase seals, prevent shark attacks debated

May 29, 2019 — A Cape Cod company has proposed building a sonic barrier around the region’s beaches to chase away seals and prevent shark attacks.

Deep Blue LLC presented its idea Wednesday at a public meeting in Barnstable. It sparked a broader debate about addressing the region’s massive seal population.

The company envisions a system of underwater audio devices that will emit a sound unpleasant to seals.

Owners Willy Planinshek and Kevin McCarthy say that if the seals leave the area, the great white sharks that eat them will follow.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

Film Details Impact Of The Loss Of The ‘Sacred Cod’

May 29, 2019 — In the early 17th century, English explorer Bartholomew Gosnold gave Cape Cod its name due to the abundant cod fish he saw in its waters.

Throughout history, the cod has played a crucial role in feeding various peoples, from explorers on ships such as the Vikings, to Basques, to Europeans, to early settlers of the Cape. They all lived on cod, whether it was fresh, salted or frozen. Author Mark Kurlansky, in his 1998 book “Cod,” dubs the cod “the fish that changed the world.”

Yet now this essential fish is endangered, as detailed in the film “Sacred Cod: The Fight for the Future of America’s Oldest Fishery.” The culprits? Climate change, government policies and overfishing.

“Overfishing was just part of the problem with cod,” David Abel, a Pulitzer-Prize winning reporter for the Boston Globe, said in an email interview. Abel reported, wrote, directed and co-produced the film, which will be screened at the Chatham Orpheum Theater on Saturday, June 1 at 10 a.m. as part of its Sustainability Series. “Climate change also has played a significant role in making it much harder for a species that had been overfished for generations to bounce back. Cod can only thrive in a narrow band of temperatures.”

As well as Abel, the 2016 independent film is the work of Steve Liss, for 25 years a photographer for Time magazine, and Andy Laub, founder of As It Happens Creative. The 65-minute film has won five awards and was broadcast around the world in 2017.

In a nutshell, the story is this. The cod fishery has collapsed in New England, specifically in the Gulf of Maine, which is warming at an alarming rate due to climate change. In November 2014, when the government learned that the population of cod was only 3 or 4 percent of what is needed to sustain a healthy population, cod fishing was banned in the region. This led to an outcry from fishermen whose livelihoods were threatened.

Read the full story at The Cape Cod Chronicle