Great White

[STOGEY]

Great Wite shark seen in Chatham.

 

[Busdiver]

Neat. Did you get to see him/her/it?

 

[Hockeynut]

Is this normal,strange,or extremely rare?

 

[STOGEY]

Is this normal,strange,or extremely rare?

It is suppose to be rather rare around these here parts. I heard or actually read on a local new paper that people had witnessed a great white attack a seal just off of chatham beach.

 

[yak]

The same thing was reported last summer. It's not rare anymore.

 

[RIOceanographer]

New England is home to great whites, however, the western Atlantic population of white sharks seem to spend most of their time further from shore and they don't tend to congregate in near shore feeding areas like seal/sea lion colonies as their west coast cousins do. This means they are not seen by people as often, but they are definitely out there.

There is speculation that sightings like this may become more frequent in New England due to increases in the seal population which could draw more sharks inshore to feed, but whether that turns out to be true remains to be seen.

 

[yak]

Make that another GW attack http://wbztv.com/local/local_story_226132540.html

 

[battles2a5]

There is a fairly large seal population on Monomoy Island (just off Chatham) now so great white sightings are becoming more common.

 

[LobstaMan]

New England is home to great whites, however, the western Atlantic population of white sharks seem to spend most of their time further from shore and they don't tend to congregate in near shore feeding areas like seal/sea lion colonies as their west coast cousins do. This means they are not seen by people as often, but they are definitely out there.

There is speculation that sightings like this may become more frequent in New England due to increases in the seal population which could draw more sharks inshore to feed, but whether that turns out to be true remains to be seen.

I've seen those seals both from land and from boats over the past few years down off Monomoy and they are not small cute little harbor seals. They are huge 400 or 600lb grey seals, so any shark attacking them must be a monster. I doubt blues, porbeagles, etc. would attack something that big unless it was dead or injured. GW sounds like a prime suspect. Maybe it's the same one that was trapped in that creek near the Woods Hole area last year. Are GWs known to be territorial?

Lobstaman

 

[rubberduck]

anybody ever have an underwater encounter in these waters?