BIDDEFORD (NEWS CENTER Maine) -- Marine science researchers at the University of New England detected a 12-foot great white shark near its only acoustic receiver in Maine. The shark was originally tagged by researchers at the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. UNE professor Dr. James Sulikowski says they are able to gather new data from the detection.
"What’s really cool is that she was tag last year with one of the satellite tags of ours," Dr. Sulikowski said. "We got some really fine skill movements, but we've got some tissue samples to see if she’s pregnant or not, and seeing if this is an area where she might be spending time to help that pregnancy. It's all exciting and new that no one else is really doing globally."
This is the third consecutive year a white shark has been detected by the acoustic receiver, located off Stratton Island, about a mile away from Old Orchard Beach in Saco Bay. In July, students and researchers dropped underwater "shark cams" near this area to capture images of white sharks.
To date, the cameras haven't discovered what they are looking for. "It's a needle in the haystack," Sulikowski said.
"We want to know about all the other sharks that haven’t been tagged that are swimming around the area. How often they’ve been here, how long they are staying, what are they doing and ultimately how it’s going to impact us in our ecosystem."
A great white shark on Sept. 16 attacked and killed a 26-year-old boogie boarder about 30 yards off of a Cape Cod beach. The deadly attack was the first in Massachusetts in 80 years. Avoiding attacks by learning from shark movements and migrations is the entire goal of the UNE project.
"[It] will help us make the water safe and still allow the sharks to do what they do," Sulikowski said. "The best way to avoid that is to be diligent, look for warnings. Go swimming in areas that lifeguards have deemed safe. It’s hard sometimes, but it’s best we do."
The new data is preliminary, but Sulikowski believes it indicates "more of a presence of white sharks." "We are detecting them or seeing them earlier in the season taking advantage of food."