Despite its well-established presence in the North Atlantic Ocean, the white shark is not considered an abundant species, and efforts to study its ecology have historically been hampered by the inability of researchers to predictably find these sharks. However, the rebounding population of gray seals off the coast of New England is drawing white sharks in greater numbers to our shoreline. Cape Cod has now become the only known aggregating site for white sharks in the North Atlantic. To take advantage of this opportunity, the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries initiated a long-term white shark research program in 2009 to study the ecology and natural history of this species in the western North Atlantic. With more than 100 white sharks now tagged with sophisticated technology, Greg Skomal and his team are piecing together an incredible story of how this shark lives in the North Atlantic.
