A new population study of great white sharks off Cape Cod shows that the region is one of the largest white shark hotspots in the world, as the apex predators flock to the Cape to hunt seals.
A new population study of great white sharks off Cape Cod shows that the region is one of the largest white shark hotspots in the world, as the apex predators flock to the Cape to hunt seals.
Local shark researchers recently found that about 800 individual white sharks visited the waters off the Cape from 2015 to 2018. This count of 800 sharks is the first-ever estimate of white shark abundance in the North Atlantic Ocean.
The study was published on Thursday in the journal Marine Ecology Progress Series.
Megan Winton, lead author of the study and a staff scientist for the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy, had revealed this population estimate last month during a new National Geographic special for Sharkfest.
« Cape Cod is the only area in the region where researchers can feasibly monitor the population, and our estimates suggest that the Cape is among the larger white shark hotspots worldwide, which is good news from a conservation standpoint, » Winton said.
