Historically speaking, Great Whites come to Monomoy in large numbers during the month of August, according to data kept by Skomal for nearly a decade. He then churns a pole in a large bucket, releasing bits of dead fish back into the sea. “Even if we just see one, it can be exciting,” says captain Yates, a tattoo of an anchor stamped on his forearm. This team of scientists, along with a number of deck hands, has an important job to do, and as Fischer tells the crew, “a lack of numbers doesn’t mean there was a lack of effort.” Like Skomal and Fischer, Yates doesn’t let the amount of taggings overshadow the reason for being there. “Just one shark tagged will contribute immensely to what we know about this species because we just don’t know that much,” says Skomal. On Thursday afternoon, the team brought in a 12-foot, 1,400-pound female. If you get one, you get one.”Īnd get one they finally did. “I don’t set my sights too high when it comes to working in this field. If you study sharks, it’s expensive, and they are a rare event species, and it’s not always predictable or easy,” says Skomal, the state’s top shark expert who has worked with Fischer on OCEARCH for the last two years. “I have been a scientist for 30 years studying animals that are really hard to get ahold of. Researching and tagging sharks by bringing them onboard is certainly more difficult, but the OCEARCH team is able to attach more sensors and collect more data than if they just used harpoons. It’s also fewer than the 15 Great Whites tagged in the waters last summer by state researchers along with Skomal, who used harpoons to insert a sensor into the sharks while they swam below. Greg Skomal and founder Chris Fischer-wrangled the year before in the Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge near Chatham. Since the ship launched for the 2013 season on July 31, members of the OCEARCH team have spotted 13 sharks off Cape Cod and successfully tagged just one so far. That total just trails the two sharks the team of OCEARCH researchers-led by Dr.
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