A recent press release issued by the New Zealand-based National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) reports that a New Zealand great white shark that they had tagged has set a world record for the deepest ever known dive of 1200 meters (3,937 feet).

“A big shark called ‘Shack’, the biggest shark we have tagged, at 4.8 metres (15.75-ft), has set the world’s deepest great white shark dive record,” says NIWA Principal Scientist, Malcolm Francis. “And he made several other very deep dive records between 1000 and 1200 metres while crossing the ocean. Prior to this, we had recorded several at around 1000 metres, so it’s quite a substantial extension.”

Migratory Sharks

New Zealand scientists tagged Shack and 24 other great white sharks with electronic “pop-up” tags at Stewart and Chatham Islands, over a five year period. The high-tech tag records location, depth and temperature, and releases itself after a pre-determined time, usually 6–9 months, to transmit its data via satellite.

Of the 25 tagged sharks, four tags came off within the first two weeks. Movement tracks could be determined for nineteen sharks, and only one of those stayed near the tagging site the whole time; ‘Kara’, a big female shark, stayed near Stewart Island to Fiordland. The other 18 headed towards warmer tropical waters.

“Before we started this work, five years ago, it was thought that great white sharks were cold water animals. But it seems the great white sharks are taking tropical winter holidays, departing New Zealand between April and September, for somewhere warmer. The maximum distance migrated was 3300 km,” says Francis. One shark returned to its Chatham Islands tagging site after spending 6 months at Norfolk Island.

“Our sharks don’t cross the equator; so far our tagged animals have only gone as far north as 17 degrees south, north of New Caledonia,” says Francis.

They take long migratory trips making deep dives as they go. They can travel 150 km a day and it takes them just three weeks to get to Australia.

Great white sharks experience a huge range of water temperatures between 3 and 27 degrees Celsius.

Pop-up Tags

Tagging a shark is not an easy process.

“We have to attract them to the boat, with a berley of tuna oil and minced tuna. Then we use a long pole that has a needle tip on it. The tag has a monofilament nylon leader with a barbed plastic anchor on it. The anchor slides over the needle tip, which is injected under the skin of the shark with the pole,” says Department of Conservation (DOC) scientist Clinton Duffy.

“When the shark is close enough and at (hopefully) the right angle, we use the pole to stab the anchor into the muscle below the dorsal fin as it swims by,” says Duffy. “Lots of patience is needed because usually the shark is moving around, its back is exposed only for a short amount of time and the dorsal fin is out of reach.”

After nearly a year, the tag releases itself from the tether, floats to the ocean surface and starts sending the data via satellite, to France. “If the tag itself is recovered after washing ashore, we are able to extract much more high resolution data from it. So far, we have recovered 6 of our tags from the Pacific Ocean. These “pop-up” tags cost $5000 each, and they have a return to sender message on them.

“The tag leaders have a small guillotine on them, which can cut through the monofilament nylon, and release the tag if it goes too deep,” Says Duffy.

For more information about this great white shark program, read the entire article on the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) website.

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We in Massachusetts have had our share of great white stories and sightings this  past summer, especially with the sightings and tagging of several great whites off the coast of Chatham and Monomy Island.

Prior to the past few years most of the great white shark stories were focused on the established great white shark population residing in the waters off the North-Central coast of California.

Many scientists and researchers in the marine community now believe that great white sharks, and many other large sharks, are being hunted, fished and caught at an alarming rate throughout the waters of the world.

Found in North-Central California waters, white sharks feed on seals and sea lions, primarily during late summer and fall months. The sharks play an important role in the marine ecosystem by keeping fast-growing seal and sea lion populations in balance

To help protect the great white shark population in the waters off California, NOAA (National Oceanic And Atmospheric Administration) announced that it has implemented new regulations to protect the great white shark in NOAA’s Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary, a marine protected area just west of San Francisco.

The regulations, enacted by NOAA’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries, prohibit activities that would attract white sharks anywhere in the Farallones sanctuary.

“Attracting”  The Shark

 “Attracting” the sharks means any activity that lures or may lure a shark by using food, bait, chum, dyes, decoys (e.g., surfboards or body boards used as decoys), acoustics or any other means.

The new rules strengthen the ban on hunting and fishing for white sharks by allowing them to feed undisturbed and without distraction from intrusive human activities.

Getting within 50 meters (164 feet) of any white shark within two nautical miles of any of the Farallon Islands also is prohibited. The Farallones are comprised of three island groups, part of the Farallon Archipelago, approximately 27 miles from the Golden Gate and Point Reyes.

About The Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary

Designated in 1981, the NOAA’s Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary encompasses 948 square nautical miles (1,255 square miles) of water off the northern and central California coast.

Located just a few miles from San Francisco, the waters within the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary are part of a nationally significant marine ecosystem that supports a diversity of marine habitats and species.

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It looks like Chatham, MA is becoming the hot-spot for sharks in New England waters!

An article by K.C. Myers in the Cape Cod Times (September 4, 2009) reports that five large sharks, possibly great whites, have been spotted cruising in the waters just offshore the Monomy Island National Wildlife Refuge.

The refuge, home to an ever growing population of seals, now estimated to be in the thousands, has been in the news during the past few years due to several shark attacks on seals and great white shark sightings in the area. 

The reports coming out of Chatham are very similar to those that are often reported around the Farallon Islands in California and other areas of the world where you find large seal populations. If you have a large seal population, then you can expect to find large sharks in the same area. Seals are one of the more highly prized prey items for great white sharks.

The article by K.C. Myers reports that Town of Chatham and Massachusetts state officials have issued warnings to the public urging people to avoid swimming where seals congregate.

A few weeks ago two kayakers reported witnessing a shark attack on a seal as they kayaked in waters not too far off the shoreline of Lighthouse Beach in Chatham. According to Martin Finucane’s article on Boston.com they may have witnessed a great white attack on a gray seal. Read the article for more information about the sighting.

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A great white shark may be prowling the coastal waters off of Chatham, MA according to recent reports on Boston.com and other sources on Cape Cod.

Great white sightings are not unexpected in this area of Cape Cod at this time of year. Last July (2008), there were several great white sightings in the same area and also in the waters off Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket.

With a growing population of gray seals living in the waters off Chatham and nearby Monomy Island, the odds of attracting the attention of a great white shark in the area have been increasing.

Seals are one of the more highly prized prey items for great white sharks.

The most recent reported sighting was made by two kayakers last weekend as they kayaked in waters not too far off the shoreline of Lighthouse Beach in Chatham. According to Martin Finucane’s article on Boston.com they may have witnessed a great white attack on a gray seal. Read the article for more information about the sighting.

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Read Patrick Cronin’s article on the Seacoastonline.com website for the complete story, including a photograph of the tooth.  According to the article, Ms. Barber has been on a quest to identify the source and type of tooth that she found.

Initially, she thought it may have been from an extinct shark species called Carcharodon megalodon, the “megatooth” shark, which existed 2 million years ago.

But a scientist at the Smithsonian Institution who examined a photograph of the tooth believes it is from a Great White Shark.

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There were two interesting albino whale sightings in the news this week. Actually, we should correct that statement and set it straight as the whale shark is not actually a whale, but a fish – the world’s largest fish. The other creature was indeed a whale – an albino Southern Right Whale.

Both creatures are believed to be white because of a lack of pigmentation in their skin but they are expected to gradually turn to a darker colour as the years go by.

Whale Sharks, according to the Whale Shark Project website, have a circumglobal distribution in tropical and warm temperate seas and are typically found in areas of high plankton productivity. They are present mainly between latitudes 30° N and 35° S, but have been sighted as far North as New York on the US East coast and as far South as Tasmania. (Note: I couldn’t document or verify any whale shark sightings in New England waters ~ Mark Bransfield)

Do you know the name of the second largest fish in the world? It is the basking shark, a plankton eating, filter-feeding shark that is often seen in the coastal waters of New England.

Albino Whale Shark Sighted in Waters off Coast of Darwin, an Island in the Galapagos group

An article by Richard Shears in the online edition of the British newspaper, The Daily Mail, has a fascinating description and photographs of an encounter by a group of divers with a 33-ft albino whale shark in the waters off the coast of Darwin, an island in the Galapagos group.

Here is a photograph of the albino whale shark (Copyright: Barcroft Media).

The divers had the incredible luck of watching and photographing this rare and graceful creature for approximately 30 minutes as it glided through the waters near them. The female whale shark, believed to be the only one of its kind, was first spotted by diver and naturalist Antonio Moreano in the Galapagos islands when he took a group of tourists on a nature cruise.

Visit Mr. Shears online article for all of the details of the sighting.

A Rare Albino Southern Right Whale Calf SIghted in Waters off Western Australia

The article by Mr. Shears inThe Daily Mailalso describes a sighting of a rare, snow-white albino Southern Right whale calf in the waters off western Australia. The whale which has become a tourist attraction is believed to be one of only ten in the world.


Here is a photograph of the albino Southern Right Whale calf (Copyright: Barcroft Media):

                                       Albino Southern Right Whale Calf

Visit Mr. Shears online article for all of the details of the sighting.

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Porbeagle

A research team located the mating area on Georges Bank earlier this month after hearing reports from fishermen that they were hauling up the large, blue-grey sharks in their nets. Steve Campana, a marine biologist who specializes in the species, said the find makes it only the second known breeding ground in the Northwest Atlantic for the fast, fierce-looking shark that can reach almost four metres in length.

Until now, scientists knew of only one breeding ground for porbeagles off Newfoundland and Labrador’s southern coast. The area was closed to directed shark fishing shortly after it was identified as a mating area.Campana said Fisheries managers are now reviewing the latest find to determine whether the area should be closed to shark fishing to stave off another collapse in the population.

The porbeagle fishery is worth an estimated $2 million annually on the East Coast, with 90 per cent of it going to markets in Boston.

To read the complete post, visit the following link:

• Shark Breeding Ground Confirmed Off Canada’s East Coast

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Shark

The shark washed ashore on a beach off Sheep Pond Road Monday and was discovered by several children on the beach.

Here are two links to follow for more information about the story:

• Shark Washes Up Off Sheep Pond Road, byBy Jason Graziadei,
  Nantucket Inquirer & Mirror, July 14, 2008. This article has photographs of the shark.

• Great White Shark Washes Up On Nantucket, by Martin Finucane, Boston
  Globe, July 15, 2008

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It is believed that the increasing population of seals year-round in the waters off Martha’s Vineyard is the primary reason for the increased number of shark sighting in the past few years.

Mark Alan Lovewell of the Vineyard Gazette has a report on this most recent sighting. To read it online, visit the following link:

Article: Swimmers Sent Out of Sea Following Shark Sighting By Mark Alan Lovewell, Vineyard Gazette

So far we haven’t heard of any recent great white sightings in the waters off of Greater Newburyport, including the North Shore and the New Hampshire seacoast.

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Monomoy Island National Wildlife Refuge is home to hundreds of seals and also a favored feeding ground for several species of sharks including the great white, mako, and thresher.

Capt. Littlefield estinmated that the seal that was attacked weighed 300 to 400 pounds and that the shark was between 14 and 16 feet in length. He believes that it was a great white shark.

There have been great white shark sightings in the Monomoy Island area over the past few years as the seal population has steadily increased.

A similar explosion in seal populations off the California and Mexico coastlines has resulted in many more observed shark attacks on the Pacific coastline. Unfortunately the California and Mexico coastal waters are shared by both seals and surfers.

This year at least three surfers and swimmers have been killed by sharks in the waters off the coast of California and Mexico.

Here is a link to the article by K.C. Myers that appeared on CapeCodOnline.com about the shark attack off Monomoy Island.

• Boat Passengers Witness Shark Attack by K.C. Myers, Cape Cod Times

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