Great white sharks head north, following seals and alarming beachgoers

SCARBOROUGH Maine AP Rick Clough spent chosen four decades fishing for lobsters and sea urchins off the Maine coast before spotting one of the ocean s the greater part recognized predators a great white shark The approximately -foot -meter shark seen off the beach town of Scarborough in July surprised Clough but didn t make him fear the ocean though he admitted I m not sure I d want to go urchin diving now Boaters beachgoers and fishermen like Clough who spend time in the chilly waters of New England and Atlantic Canada are learning to live with great white sharks the creatures made famous by the film Jaws Sightings of the apex predators are up in places like Maine where they were once very rarely spotted Scientists link the white shark sightings to increased availability of the seals the sharks feast on and say beachgoers are generally very safe from shark bites The sharks can grow close to feet meters long though greater part don t get that big David Lancaster a commercial clam digger in Scarborough used a drone to get a look at an approximately -foot -meter shark near the town s famed beaches earlier this month He described the animal as magnificent and really amazing to see But he also explained the shark s presence reminded him that swimmers need to look out for the big fish Why are great whites going north Sightings of great whites off Cape Cod Massachusetts have become increasingly frequent in latest years and the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy has documented hundreds of the animals over more than a decade But new input shows the sharks are heading even farther north into New Hampshire Maine and beyond announced Greg Skomal a senior fisheries biologist with the Massachusetts Department of Marine Fisheries and a veteran white shark researcher The number of white sharks detected off Halifax Nova Scotia increased about times from to according to a paper published by Skomal and others in May in the journal Marine Ecology Progress Series Even farther north the number detected in the Cabot Strait that separates Nova Scotia and Newfoundland increased nearly four times over the paper commented Skomal noted the average residency in these northern waters has also increased from days to days suggesting that white sharks appear to be increasingly confident farther north A key reason for the shift seems to be the productive conservation of seals off New England and Canada via laws such as the Marine Mammal Protection Act which has allowed seals to thrive and provide a food source for the predatory sharks Skomal stated It could be a function of a growing prey base Skomal declared And that would be seals Sharks are protected too Great white sharks also benefit from protections including a ban on fishing for them in U S federal waters that has stood since They are still considered vulnerable by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature In Massachusetts the marine fisheries department reported it strengthened its fishing laws after fishermen in chose to target white sharks anyway The state prohibited the use of certain kinds of heavy fishing gear in shoreline areas where white sharks are the greater part commonly identified We believe here in Massachusetts that targeting white sharks from the beach is not a safe practice Skomal explained Not only because it could impact in the death of the shark but because it could be a inhabitants safety issue Despite the size and strength of the sharks dangerous encounters between white sharks and humans are vanishingly rare Worldwide there have been fewer than fatal great white shark bites on humans in recorded history according to the International Shark Attack File at the Florida Museum of Natural History Living with great whites The first recorded fatal shark attack in Maine happened in when a great white shark killed -year-old Julie Dimperio Holowach off Bailey Island It s an exceedingly rare event But we re providing all of this information to mitigate human behavior and hopefully reduce any negative encounters between humans and sharks explained Ashleigh Novak research coordinator with the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy The rise of social media has made shark sightings go viral in fresh summers A smartphone app called Sharktivity also allows shark spotters to overview their sightings Lancaster a surfer mentioned living with great whites is just something people in New England are going to have to adjust to It s crazy that they are around as fishermen and surfers and something we have to accept Lancaster noted It s in the back of your head but you have to accept it