When the shark analysis groups are out on the water, count on your cellphone to start out buzzing with alerts.
That was but once more the case on Tuesday, as an ideal white shark was noticed 20 yards off the Cape Cod shoreline and a shark was seen 60 yards offshore.
In the meantime, hammerhead sharks had been lately noticed off the Cape — which is turning into an everyday summer season incidence right here as water temps leap.
“It’s been getting more common,” shark biologist John Chisholm instructed the Herald. “We used to see them out in the Gulf Stream, but now they’re getting closer to shore with the water temperatures warming into the 70s.”
Whereas white sharks hunt for seals alongside the Cape, hammerhead sharks eat fish and stingrays — and there’s loads of that prey across the area.
If a hammerhead shark is noticed near shore, researchers gained’t concern a shark alert like with nice white sharks.
“They don’t really pose a threat to people,” Chisholm stated. “They’re a fish-eating species, and they’re not going after seals. Their teeth are more for eating fish than for feeding on big marine mammals.”
Wow! What an unbelievable (and uncommon) clean hammerhead sighting off Monomoy Island on Saturday, July twentieth! Thanks, L. Bovenzi for sharing with us! We could also be a white shark group however we’ll at all times respect a particular shark sighting 🙂 pic.twitter.com/VvCCWDyafW
— Atlantic White Shark Conservancy (@A_WhiteShark) July 25, 2024
The shark alerts for excellent white sharks on Tuesday had been off Orleans and Chatham. An apex predator was noticed 20 yards off of Orleans’ Nauset South OSV close to Path 2.
Additionally, a white shark was reportedly seen 60 yards off Chatham’s North Seashore Island. Shark alerts are issued when a white shark sighting is confirmed near a public seaside.
When analysis groups are out on the water searching for sharks, it tends to be a busy day.
“If there are no alerts the next day, it doesn’t mean the sharks are not there,” Chisholm stated. “It just means the team is not on the water… People have to be aware.”
It has been an extremely busy 12 months for basking sharks throughout the area, as boaters mistakenly assume they’re seeing a white shark. Now, many spotters are additionally complicated sunfish for white sharks.
“This year basking sharks are everywhere. I’m getting multiple reports every day,” Chisholm stated. “Then last week were the first sunfish misidentifications. A lot of people are seeing ‘white sharks’ that are not actually white sharks.”
The fin of the ocean sunfish, also referred to as a Mola mola, is commonly confused for a shark’s fin. Ocean sunfish have a extra rounded fin, whereas white sharks have a extra triangular fin.
Additionally, a serious signal for a sunfish is that if the fin seems then disappears, solely to go up and down over and over.
