The Cape Cod Shark Blog

While the white sharks are prominent in Cape Cod, the Cape has a range of other marine life than just the white sharks and the seals. The Cape is situated in the Gulf of Maine, a place with rich biodiversity. This means that there are lots of other fish and animals that are living underwater, and just one of these species is the White Shark. Therefore, so many sharks are out there for you to learn about and explore. Here are just a couple listed below that you might recognize from films and there might be a couple more that you didn’t even realize exist! Here’s the list:

Shortfin Mako Shark (Isurus oxyrinchus)

The Shortfin Mako Shark is a shark that spans across the ocean, including the area of Cape Cod! This shark could be seen as Chum in Finding Nemo and some features that distinguish the shark include its cone-like shape, which lets the shark swim extremely fast in the water. Another defining feature about the Mako is its teeth, which protrude from its mouth.

Fun Fact about Makos: The Shortfin Mako Shark is the fastest shark in the world.

Citations:

https://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/discover/species-profiles/isurus-oxyrinchus http://www.elasmo-research.org/education/shark_profiles/i_oxyrinchus.htm http://www.sharks-world.com/mako_shark/

Photo Citations: 

http://bit.ly/2aTjFkJ

http://bit.ly/2aKLj1W

Basking Sharks (Cetorhinus maximus)

While they look intimidating, this Basking Shark is actually a filter feeder and it feeds on tiny organisms called phytoplankton. The most distinct feature of this animal is its large mouth and its head is also encircled with gill slits. 

Fun Fact: The Basking Shark are the second largest sharks in the world.

Citation:

http://extremesharkfacts.com/sharks/basking-shark-facts/ https://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/discover/species-profiles/cetorhinus-maximus http://sharkopedia.discovery.com/types-of-sharks/basking-shark/ https://www.whoi.edu/main/topic/phytoplankton

Photo Citation:

https://userscontent2.emaze.com/images/a86c8100-a472-451b-9961-29b535f6c611/b56b0f06b0ca7b909cf9132c4b38547d.jpg

White Sharks (Carcharodon carcharias)

The (Great) White Shark is the infamous apex predator in the ocean. With its appearance in media between Shark Week, Finding Nemo, and Jaws, the White Shark has definitely gotten a bad reputation over the past few decades. Some features that define white sharks are its conical snouts and large and triangular dorsal fin (the first fin on its top). 

Fun Fact: Even though they appear so much in media, there is still relatively little known about the biology of these sharks.

Citations:

https://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/discover/species-profiles/carcharodon-carcharias http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/3855/0

Photo Citations:

http://bit.ly/2bpnWZW

http://bit.ly/2bgooZf

Porbeagle Shark (Lamna nasus)

The Porbeagle Shark is a stout shark and it has white patches on the trailing edge of the first dorsal fin and has little protrusions on the sides of their teeth. 

Fun Fact: This shark changes its body temperature quickly so it can travel to a wide range of temperatures!

Citations:

http://www.sharksider.com/porbeagle-shark/ http://new-brunswick.net/new-brunswick/sharks/species/porbeagle.html

Photo Citations:

www.sharknewz.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Porbeagle1.jpg

Spiny Dogfish (Squalus acanthias)

The Spiny Dogfish has a pointed snout, large eyes, and spines in front of its two dorsal fins. Its body is also scattered with white spots and its anal fin is absent. 

Fun Fact: The Spiny Dogfish is pregnant for 22-24 (about 2 years!)

Citations:

https://www.montereybayaquarium.org/animal-guide/fishes/spiny-dogfish

https://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/discover/species-profiles/squalus-acanthias

Photo Citations:

http://bit.ly/2beMoyM

Blue Shark (Prionace glauca)

The Blue Sharks have a distinct blue color with a slender body and very pointed fins. It also has a slender body. 

Fun Fact: These sharks are graceful swimmers and known to jump out of the water!

Citation: 

http://marinebio.org/species.asp?id=35

https://www.montereybayaquarium.org/animal-guide/fishes/spiny-dogfish

Photo Citation:

One of the sharks, Mary Lee, on Ocearch.org - the different points mark the different locations of the shark. The date and time is also included on the website. 

You have the ability to look at the sharks nearby! Satellite tags are put on lots of white sharks in the area. Go to http://www.ocearch.org/ and you can track all different kinds of sharks including white sharks that are nearby. Research projects use these satellite tags in their research being done on white sharks as well. The SPOT and PSAT tags are different tags that are used to be able to track these white sharks. The SPOT tag is a smart position and temperature tag that transmits the position of the shark when its dorsal fin is exposed to the surface. The PSAT tag floats along side the shark and it also attached to the fin, and they record data on water temperature, swimming depth, and light levels.

Citations: https://swfsc.noaa.gov/textblock.aspx?Division=FRD&ParentMenuId=87&id=918 http://www.ocearch.org/

A Great White Shark on its Migration

Cape Cod has been a home to shark history for a while, as Martha’s Vineyard was the setting for the movie Jaws. Efforts have been made to bring awareness to the falsities in the film. In Chatham on Cape Cod, the Orpheum Theater plays a short video produced with the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy to help bring awareness and raise money about the white sharks in Cape Cod. Jaws does not realistically convey sharks, but it did put fear into the hearts of movie-watchers all over the world. The movie definitely contributed to the decline in the white shark population, which has become vulnerable on the IUCN--yet there is still so much unknown about these sharks!

Citations:

http://www.capecodchamber.org/articles/41-years-later-%E2%80%9Cjaws%E2%80%9D-still-has-teeth http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/3855/0

Fish (and Sharks!) Are Friends, Not Food!

The research being done about white sharks is relatively new compared to the research done the white sharks in the West Coast. The Massachusetts Shark Research Program is an institution that leads in work being done about the white sharks in Cape Cod. The research tracks the broad scale and fine-scale movements of the white sharks. Both methods rely on shark tagging so the broad scale movements can be tracked with satellite-based technology and fine scale movements can be tracked with acoustic transmitter data. These research with the movements intend to observe behavioral patterns within the sharks. The Massachusetts Shark Research Program is in collaboration with other institutions like the Mote Marine Laboratory studying “Fine-scale Behavior and Post-release Recovery in white sharks” and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution studying “The Trophic Ecology of White Sharks in the Western North Atlantic”. There is still so much to learn about sharks, as relatively little is still known about white shark biology.

You can find more about research being done through clicking this link from the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy. The Atlantic White Conservancy has a shark center in Chatham, Cape Cod with exhibits being done about the white sharks. http://www.atlanticwhiteshark.org/research/

More Citations (You can find even more research here!):

● This is the web page for the white shark research that is going on with the Massachusetts Shark Research Program. This page gives a more scientific run-down on the broad-scale and fine-scale movements being done in Cape Cod: http://www.mass.gov/eea/agencies/dfg/dmf/programs-and-projects/white-shark-research.html ● This gives a general overview of the shark research at Massachusetts Shark Research Program. : http://www.mass.gov/eea/agencies/dfg/dmf/programs-and-projects/massachusetts-shark-research-program.html ● This is the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy’s run-down on the shark research being done both in Cape Cod and along the East Coast http://www.atlanticwhiteshark.org/research/

Shark attack stories and the amount of shark sighting articles about Cape Cod and white sharks seem to be prevalent in the media; however, these articles don’t portray just how hard it is to be in a shark attack. One’s chances of being attacked by a shark are 1 in 11.5 million. You are 75 times more likely to be struck by lighting and are 132 times more likely to drown at the beach. In the year 2007, more people were killed by falling in sand holes than by sharks. In the end, you are not threatened by sharks. Actually, the sharks are more threatened by you! 100 million sharks are killed every single year, especially to illegal shark finning. Populations of many shark species have fallen by over 90% from shark finning, including the tiger shark, bull shark, and smooth hammerhead. In the end, the sharks do not want to eat or even interact with humans. If they were, then the number of shark attacks would be much higher.

The sharks are helpful to maintaining a balanced ecosystem in Cape Cod. Their presence in Cape Cod is actually helpful because they help regulate the overabundant seal population on the Cape. These sharks help for the fishermen because they eat the seals that eat the cod and they help you because every single animal in the food chain is important for having a balanced environment that we can all enjoy. The white shark is only here for the seals, they do not want to eat or attack humans. In fact, they have very little interest in humans.

Citations:

http://www.atlanticwhiteshark.org/#why-sharks-matter http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/17/us/thriving-in-cape-cods-waters-gray-seals-draw-fans-and-foes.html?_r=0

White sharks live in temperate and tropical waters in both coastal and pelagic habitats. This means that white sharks migrate year-round all over the world. However, even though white sharks are known to migrate, there is still little known about their migration habits. This provides one reason why the sharks are in Cape Cod. Further, shark tagging is where we are starting to learn more their migration patterns and you can click here if you want to find out more on another blog post!

Another aspect that contributes to the white shark increase in Cape Cod is the increase of gray seals on the Cape. Before the Marine Mammal Protection Act, the number of grey seals was extremely low due to gray seal killings. Very few people ever saw seals in the Cape Cod area. Now, the story is a little different. After the Marine Mammal Protection Act was put into place, people were not allowed to hunt seals anymore. The once endangered species is now thriving in the Cape and the Gulf of Maine where they virtually no predators and a large food source. A census taken during 2012 shows that the grey seal population has increased to 15,700 seals in the Gulf of Maine. With this increase in gray seals in Cape Cod, white sharks have also started moving into the area to follow their food source.

Citations:

http://www.atlanticwhiteshark.org/about-white-sharks/ https://www.fws.gov/uploadedfiles/whitesharkwengetal.pdf http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/17/us/thriving-in-cape-cods-waters-gray-seals-draw-fans-and-foes.html?_r=0 http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/pdfs/sars/ao2012segr-wn.pdf

This blog is a resource for all those interested, particularly families, who want to learn more about sharks in Cape Cod--particularly sorting facts from fiction about the white sharks. With the recent increase of sharks in Cape Cod and a recent shark week episode, “Great Whites Rule Cape Cod”, fear mongering surrounds these white sharks. This blog is intended to set the record straight and sort out misconceptions. With clear citations, the blog intends to answer a range of questions about sharks in Cape Cod and give a list about all the sharks in the Cape to just give an idea of how diverse the shark population is here. The fear mongering being done about the sharks in Cape Cod hurt both the humans and sharks. In the end, sharks are friends, not food!

Citations: