Sunday, June 27, 2010

Massachusetts: Great White shark caught off the coast!

Local fisherman have been keeping an eye out for the return of great white sharks after they were spotted and tagged off the coast of Cape Cod last summer.On Saturday, the fishing boat Sweet Dream III was tuna fishing on Stellwagen Bank when the crew spotted one of the predators.Capt. Bruce Sweet said he and his crew caught the 7-foot shark after a one-hour fight to bring it in.The crew then tagged and released the fish.Stellwagen Bank lies off the Massachusetts coast, running some 18 miles from a point six miles northeast of Provincetown to seven miles southeast of Gloucester.
Greg Skomal/Massachusetts Division
Scientists tagged this great white shark and another off Chatham.More
Last September, town officials in Chatham closed all east-side facing beaches to swimming after three great white sharks came within 75 yards of the coastline.A state biologist and a team of Cape Cod fishermen became the first group to successfully tag a great white shark in the Atlantic Ocean, placing tracking devices on two sharks off the coast of Chatham, according to the Department of Marine Fisheries.No fewer than a dozen shark species, including makos, blue sharks and thresher sharks, swim in and out of New England waters each year.