UPDATED: Experts Confirm Photo as Great White Shark in RI
Thursday, August 15, 2019
Experts say that sharks in Rhode Island waters are not unusual this time of year. GoLocal confirmed with a NOAA scientist and other shark experts that the shark in the photo was a great white.
"[That] sure is," said Lisa Natanson with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries, when shown the photo by GoLocalProv.com -- and asked to confirm that it was a great white shark.
On Thursday, another Rhode Islander came forward to say that he had a recent shark sighting, while he was with family and friends.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTCharleston resident Rob Storrs said the sighting came last week by East Beach -- and while he said he has seen sharks before, he'd never seen one "fully breach"
"I was with friends and family, including my wife Joanne and our friend Christine Bibeault -- who saw it too," said Storrs of what he said was last Monday's sighting around 10:30 a.m.
"We've seen sharks around before, but we'd never seen one fully breach. This animal completely ejected," said Storrs.
Experts Confirm Photos as Great White Shark
“It’s not surprising. We know that there are many different species of sharks — sand tigers, makos, great whites, and others — traveling through our waters at any given time but especially during the summertime, “ said Mike Healey, spokesperson for the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management.
“I can confirm that this is a shark in the photo and it is in fact a great white. You can tell by the coloration and some of the features on the shark as well. I also had the photo reviewed by a couple of our Research Advisory Council members, Dr. Lisa Natanson and Dr. Greg Skomal as well as Conor McManus from RI DEM and all confirmed it was a white as well,” said Jon F. Dodd of the Atlantic Shark Institute, Chairman.
Natanson said, "Sharks don't miraculously go from New York to Massachusetts -- they come through Rhode Island."
"We don't have as much to entice them with the seal population -- they've always been in this area -- there are just more numbers this year," said Natanson. "There was a baby white shark caught off Oakland Beach last week, that one looked to be 3 or 4 feet."
As Water Warm More Activities
“If one were to visit the Port of Galilee (which DEM runs) and see the fish that are caught and docked by commercial fishermen every day — the size of the catches, the variety of fish caught, the size of individual fish such as tunas weighing 300 or more pounds — you’d have a good idea of how fertile RI’s coastal waters are,” said Healey.
Natanson has worked with the Apex program at NOAA -- studying and tracking sharks -- in the northeast.
"Our project has been here since the 70s, and since the 80s we've gotten white sharks up in Tiverton -- little ones -- and we've gotten rumors of bigger ones, which I've seen photos of, so we know they get them here," she said.
"In past years -- once in a while they'd catch [and releasse] a white shark here, most of our data is white sharks off of Mauntauk -- the thing is part of it -- when someone reports a white shark -- sometimes it's a basking shark -- the numbers have definitely increased -- with the seals," added Natanson.
Rhode Island Christina Rondeau said that her mom's friend took the photo -- and sent it to her mother.
“The great whites’ range extends along the Atlantic coast and Rhode Island is close to their summer feeding area, off Cape Cod, so they’re traveling through or close to our waters to get there,” said Healey.
“Since the passage of the Marine Mammal Protection Act in 1972, seal populations have been rebuilding along the West Coast and now (for about the past 10-15 years) we’ve been seeing seals returning to parts of the Northeast where they haven’t been for nearly a century. The relationship between seal populations and white shark populations is direct. White sharks eat seals. Having more of one of their most important food sources available has allowed sharks to make a comeback too. This hasn’t happened in a vacuum; it’s taken decades and is a sign of a healthier ocean,” added Healey.
Cape Cod has seen tremendous shark activity this summer.
“DEM is committed to tracking sharks within and passing through RI waters more scientifically and we are in the very early going of establishing a monitoring system. With our partner, the Atlantic Shark Institute (ASI), we have positioned acoustic monitors at several locations but are not yet in the position of being able to, for example, post pings picked up by monitors on social media channels,” said Healey.
“Fear drives us to believe that extremely unlikely events will happen to us. And for sure, Rhode Island’s proximity to Cape Cod with its well-documented shark activity including last summer’s attack — that gets into people’s minds. We’d point out, though, that shark attacks in New England are exceedingly rare and as this data shows [sharkattackdata.com], rarer still in Rhode Island," said Healey.
Latest in Shark Sightings
This year in August, GoLocal reported on the prevalence of sharks -- on Cape Cod.
Over the past week, beaches in Cape Cod were shut down for three days due to 20 great whites being in the area.
Massachusetts Department of Fish and Game's Gregory Skomal says a large number of seals in the area are attracting the sharks. He adds that higher water temperatures are also bringing in great whites.
"We've seen more white sharks this past July, the last month, than we did last year at this time," said Marine Biologist Gregory Skomal, in an interview with MSN.
In 2019, the state's Fish and Game Department has so far tagged 15 sharks in order to track their movements.
In 2018, GoLocal reported that a great white was caught off of Misquamicut in Rhode Island.
Updated Thursday August 15 at 12:11 p.m.
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