Great White Shark
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Started by GunterK - Sept. 2, 2018, 4:49 p.m.

a long time a go, I saw a documentary movie called "Blue Water, White Death". It recorded the efforts of a research team to film the Great White. This team sailed the 7 seas for more than a year and couldn't find one. They found other shark species, but not the Great White. Finally, in the finale, after a year and a half at sea, they found one.

Today, I read that near Cape Cod some 150 of then have been spotted... as well as numerous other sightings during the last few years. 

What changed?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6123879/Baby-great-white-sharks-spotted-perilously-close-swimmers-Cape-Cod.html

Comments
By mcfarm - Sept. 2, 2018, 5:13 p.m.
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gunter, a couple of explanations. The first is the sharks new "shark week on TV" was coming....the second was the seal pup population is way up

By carlberky - Sept. 2, 2018, 5:27 p.m.
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Climate change ?

By mcfarm - Sept. 2, 2018, 5:32 p.m.
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climate change...had it right there on the screen and thought...better not some people have strange religions

By wxgrant - Sept. 2, 2018, 6:23 p.m.
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I think the main cause is the animal is now protected in most waters. It is illegal to kill a great white in most areas of the world and prior to 1999 it wasn't. 

By silverspiker - Sept. 2, 2018, 8:04 p.m.
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Fonzie quit jumping the shark ????

By metmike - Sept. 2, 2018, 11:53 p.m.
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Local businesses and tourists are embracing the Cape Cod great white shark boom

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/01/local-businesses-and-tourists-embrace-cape-cod-great-white-shark-boom.html


  • Cape Cod, Massachusetts is a Labor Day Weekend beach mecca, but this year there is an unexpected attraction: great white sharks.
  • Great white shark sightings along the Cape have soared, primarily due to the exploding gray seal population.
  • Local businesses are embracing the shark frenzy, and shoppers are buying up all things shark-related.



Soaring shark sightings linked to seal population

       

Over the past year, great white shark sightings along the Cape have soared, primarily due to the exploding seal population. According to David W. Johnson, a professor of marine conservation ecology at Duke's Nicholas School of the Environment, there are currently between 30,000 and 50,000 gray seals off the southeastern Massachusetts coast.     

The exponential growth is largely due to the passage of the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972. Before then, gray seals were hunted for their furs and to keep them from depleting the fish stock. Massachusetts even paid a bounty of $5 per nose. While some refer to this as a "conservation success," others are growing increasingly concerned, especially Cape Cod fishermen.

     "The seals are causing a lot of problems," said Doug Brown, captain of the sportfishing charter boat Jennifer Ann, which fishes the waters of Cape Cod Bay for striped bass, bluefish and bluefin tuna from Rock Harbor in Orleans. "They eat several pounds of fish each day. They eat small bait, lobsters, striped bass, fluke, flounder. They eat anything. It's going to get to the point where they are going to have to make a decision."

     

Brown said the seals are drawing the sharks, and while tourists are fascinated by them, they can be a challenge. "The sharks come right up out of the water to grab the bait. They are not bashful. I have been out in the bay all my life, but I've never seen great whites to this amount. They are sometimes right under my boat."

    "Yet of the nearly 100 shark attacks worldwide each year, only about a third to one half are from great whites. As of August 20, 2018, there have been a total of 63 shark attack bites worldwide that were publicly reported, according to Tracking Sharks, a website that reports shark attacks across the globe. Of these attacks, 23 were reported in the United States, with eight occurring in Florida and two in Hawaii. The majority of the others were in Australia."


By metmike - Sept. 2, 2018, 11:59 p.m.
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