The Dorsal Fin

Discovery Channel’s “Shark Week”, hosted by Andy Samberg, begins tonight on the Discovery Channel. “Great White Invasion” airs at 9pm, followed by “Jaws Comes Home” at 10pm.

“Great White Invasion” will follow Chris Fallows and a team of scientists who are trying to figure out why white sharks are “suddenly” being seen “in large numbers” among swimmers and surfers along the coasts of South Africa, Australia, and California.

“Jaws Come Home” documents researcher Greg Skomal’s 2010 tracking study of five Atlantic white sharks tagged off of Chatham, Massachusetts. Skomal’s goal is to better understand the sharks migration up and down the eastern coast of the U.S. through tracking data obtained from satellite tags.

DiscoveryNetworks YouTube channel offers up a preview clip of the upcoming show “Jaws Comes Home” which features footage shot around the carcass of whale which several blue sharks (Prionace glauca), as well as an an 18′ female white shark (Carcharodon carcharias), have come to feed on.

Researcher Greg Skomal and cameraman Nick Caloyianis take the opportunity to film/photograph the encounter from a cage, which is being supported by buoys. After taking an interest in the orange buoys supporting the cage (which the narrator dramatically describes as “attacking”), the white shark becomes trapped between the surface and the top of the cage.

While situations involving wild animals will always have a level of unpredictability, hopefully the engineers behind this particular cage design/setup will take this event into consideration with future designs.

Great white sharks like this one (seen at Isla de Guadalupe) typically spend their time in water temperatures between 60-75 ° F, although evidence has shown that they occasionally venture into colder waters.

UPDATED: Thanks to reader Kevin Polk for the link in the comment section to a CapeLinks Blog article that sheds a lot more light on this story. Most notably that the shark was dead when it was found entangled in the fishing gear, and that the story was kept quiet due to legal concerns due to white sharks being legally protected species.

According to a Cape Cod Times article, a fishing vessel reportedly caught a 20′ (6m) great white shark a few miles off of Chatham, Massachusetts, last month. The capture was reported to Division of Marine Fisheries senior biologist Greg Skomal, who was caught “off-guard” by the news.

Data collected from tagging efforts by Skomal have shown that the tagged great white sharks tended to leave the Chatham area around October or November and spent winter months in the waters off of Florida. Skomal theorized that the bulk of a white shark that large would probably have provided insulation to allow the shark to tolerate the lower water temperatures in the area, which were reported to be in the lower 40s (° F).

The Cape Code Times article does not go into much detail about the capture of the great white shark. There is no mention, in the report, of whether the white shark (a protected species) was released after being caught. There is also no mention of any photographic documentation of the white shark. A 20′ (6m) specimen would be considered very large for the species.

So far, eight great white sharks have been successfully tagged in Cape Cod waters this season.

Cape Cod Times is reporting that Dr. Greg Skomal tagged the eighth great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias) of the summer, in the Cape Cod area, earlier this month. This season, five white sharks have been tagged with satellite tags and three shark have been tagged with acoustic tags. The tags are expected to provide information about where the white sharks travel, how long they stay in a particular area, and their movement patterns based on seasons and tides.

According to New England Cable News (NECN), a 7′ great white shark was caught, tagged and released in Stellwagen Bank. The shark was caught and released by the crew of a Gloucester, Massachusetts sportfishing charter boat. Dr. Gregory Skomal, of the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, identified the shark as a great white. The article from NECN does not elaborate on what type of tag was used on the white shark.

Note: The video above is loops through an 8-second clip of the white shark after it was hooked. After you’ve seen the first 8 seconds, you’ve seen all there is to it.