August 24, 2020 — On August 21, President Trump addressed a crowd in Maine regarding recent shark conservation efforts.
BOSTON HERALD: Feds offer more protections to seals than humans
August 4, 2020 — Maine’s first shark-caused human fatality came as a shock to residents and vacationers alike, but the odds of that occurring in Massachusetts waters increase virtually daily, thanks to conservation efforts that have swelled both seal and shark populations.
Authorities have confirmed that a 63-year-old woman from New York City was killed by a great white shark on Monday while swimming with her daughter off Harpswell, Maine’s Bailey Island.
Julie Dimperio Holowach became the first known person to die from a shark attack in Maine’s history, Patrick Keliher, the state’s Marine Patrol Commissioner, said at a Tuesday press conference.
Holowach, wearing a wetsuit, was swimming with her daughter about 20 yards from the shore when she was attacked. Thankfully her daughter escaped injury.
Finding more sharks off Maine’s coast could change our relationship with the ocean
July 31, 2020 — Three days after a great white killed a swimmer off Bailey Island in Harpswell, officers from the Maine Marine Patrol continued to scour coastal waters for sharks by land and by sea.
If they find a great white shark, they won’t kill it. Instead, state officials mostly seek information to document the presence of sharks and alert coastal communities.
Scientists and researchers also hope to learn more information about the species, saying that photos and reports of sharks and seals killed by sharks are helpful to them. Those can be shared with their local marine patrol officer, including as much specific information as possible.
“They tell us what species the shark is biting, where and when that’s happening, and the potential size and shape of the shark based on bite wounds,” Greg Skomal, a shark expert from Massachusetts said of the photos of seals attacked by sharks. “That is very useful information. We can start to piece together the predatory behavior of white sharks.”
NICK WHITNEY AND GREG SKOMAL: Facts, but no easy answers, around shark bites in New England
July 31, 2020 — A terrible tragedy took place in the waters off Maine this past Monday when a woman was fatally injured by a bite from a white shark. As shark scientists, we follow these incidents closely and try to learn whatever we can, but we fully realize that data and analyses are of little comfort to all those affected.
We also know that part of our job as scientists is to communicate the facts to the public as clearly as possible: This was the first-ever shark-related fatality in Maine’s history. There were only two fatalities from sharks in the world in 2019. Globally, shark bites on humans were lower than average in 2018 and 2019, and this trend appears to be continuing in 2020, according to the International Shark Attack File at the Florida Museum of Natural History. Given the number of people who enter the water every year, shark bites are rare (64 bites worldwide in 2019), and the vast majority of people who are bitten survive.
Those are the numbers, but other facts around shark attacks are much more difficult to assess: Why did this specific incident happen? What brought the shark so close to shore? What attracted it to the pair of swimmers? Why did it bite? The reality is that such incidents are so rare that the single biggest factor is probably chance.
MASSACHUSETTS: More seals means learning to live with sharks in New England
July 31, 2020 — Seals are thriving off the Northeast coast thanks to decades of protections, and that victory for wildlife has brought a consequence for humans — more encounters with sharks.
Seals are a favorite prey of large sharks such as the great white. The recent death of swimmer Julie Dimperio Holowach, who was killed by a great white off Harpswell, Maine, might have happened because the shark mistook her for a seal, authorities said.
Swimmers off the New England states have learned to be more mindful in recent years due to a spate of sightings of great whites, the apex predator made famous in the movie “Jaws.” A shark that killed a man off Cape Cod in 2018 was also believed to be a great white.
That was the first fatal shark attack in Massachusetts in more than eight decades, while the death of Holowach on Monday was the first documented fatal shark attack in Maine history.
“They’re not vindictive or mad or angry or preferring human flesh. They just occasionally make a mistake. And it’s tragic when they do,” said Greg Skomal, a shark specialist with the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries. “As we restore top predators, the potential for these interactions could increase.”
Read the full story from the Associated Press at the New Bedford Standard-Times
Great white sharks have returned to New England
July 30, 2020 — Maine saw its first fatal shark attack in the state’s history Monday when a shark killed a 63-year-old New York woman off Bailey Island, Maine, northeast of Portland.
“Based on the information I have from the state of Maine, including photos of tooth fragments, this was definitely caused by a white shark attack,” says Greg Skomal, a leading Atlantic great white shark expert and senior scientist with the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries. Maine officials invited Skomal to consult on the investigation into the attack.
The return of great white sharks to New England over the past two decades is both a conservation success story and an emerging public safety concern. Though it is extremely rare for a shark to attack—much less kill—a human, incidents are on the rise in New England. Since 2012, there have been five attacks in the region, all in Massachusetts. Only two have been fatal: Monday’s, and the death of a boogie boarder off Cape Cod in 2018. Before 2012, the most recent attack occurred in 1936. (Read about how Cape Cod has grappled with becoming a great white shark hotspot.)
It’s not known precisely how many great white sharks are in New England waters, but a tagging program Skomal started in 2009 suggests the number is growing steadily. Data from a five-year population study he launched in 2014 is still being processed, but he tagged a record-breaking 50 white sharks off Cape Cod in 2019.
Great whites attracted by plentiful seal populations in Maine waters
July 29, 2020 — Monday’s fatal shark attack off Harpswell is the result of rebounding great white shark and seal populations along the Maine coast, experts say.
The attack on Julie Dimperio Holowach, 63, was the first fatal shark attack in the state’s history. A diver was attacked off Eastport in 2010, according to the Florida Museum’s International Shark Attack File, but he was not injured and fended off a porbeagle shark with his video camera.
Seal populations have grown since a 1972 law barred killing of marine mammals and white shark numbers have been rebounding for two decades as a result of a rule that said fishermen could no longer kill the fearsome predators, a shark expert based in Massachusetts said.
Gregory Skomal of the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries dismissed speculation that warming water temperatures in the Gulf of Maine might be enticing more great whites to the state’s coastline.
He said the sharks always have been frequent visitors to Maine waters, but that growing seal populations might be drawing them closer to the shore. Seals are a favorite food of the great white, he said.
More than 150 great white shark sightings logged off Cape Cod, Massachusetts, since June
August 5, 2019 — There have been more than 150 great white shark sightings since June off the coast of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, a popular East Coast vacation spot, according to scientists.
This week alone, more than 20 great white shark sightings logged off the Cape, prompting three days of beach closures in a row beginning Tuesday.
The Atlantic White Shark Conservancy’s sharktivity app indicates that there have been more that 161 shark sightings off the coast of Massachusetts since June 1. The same shark can be spotted multiple times, scientists note.
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.
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.
NOAA Hollings Scholar Takes a Bite out of White Shark Research
July 31, 2019 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:
Sharks are among the oceans’ top predators and play an important role in the health of marine ecosystems. One of the most recognizable shark species is the white shark. Despite its notorious reputation, little is known about the Northwest Atlantic population of white sharks in comparison to other white shark populations around the world. This summer, NOAA Fisheries’ Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office hosted Rebekah James, a NOAA Hollings Scholar, where she got the opportunity to learn more about these iconic animals.
Rebekah is from Matthews, North Carolina and attends the University of North Carolina, Wilmington. She is a rising senior studying Marine Biology and Environmental Science. Rebekah loves to SCUBA dive and is working towards her professional level certifications. This summer, she worked with Dr. Tobey Curtis at our Atlantic Highly Migratory Species Management Division. Her summer project focused on the movements and habitat use of young-of-the-year white sharks during their first winter.
During the summers of 2016-2017, in collaboration with OCEARCH, Dr. Curtis and a team of scientists from several institutions tagged 20 young-of-the-year white sharks off Long Island, New York. This area is considered a summer nursery area for white sharks, but little was known about where these young sharks spend the winter months. Rebekah built on this work by looking at the sharks’ tag locations during the months of December to April. Her findings confirmed that these sharks migrated south and remained in coastal waters off North and South Carolina throughout the winter.
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