Portland Press Herald - Nine white shark sightings have been reported to the Maine Department of Marine Resources so far this year, according to Matthew Davis, a marine scientist at the agency. The latest — which has not yet been confirmed as a great white — was spotted Monday near busy beaches in Scarborough....
Great whites are not new to the Gulf of Maine, and compared to hot spots like Cape Cod or Hilton Head, their numbers here remain low, recent research shows. But the population is likely bouncing back because of conservation measures put in place to protect the sharks, which were overfished until the 1990s, as well as seals, a favorite prey species for adult whites.
Still, “people are perhaps paying more attention to them than historically,” Davis acknowledged.
The number of times people see sharks does not reflect how many are in local waters. The marine resources department uses acoustic technology to keep track of an estimated 350 tagged sharks in New England when they swim nearby — though those counts are dependent on the right conditions falling into place.
The department said it has identified 93 individual great white sharks swimming through the Gulf of Maine from mid-2020 through the end of 2024. Researchers detected 12 in 2020; 29 in 2021; 27 in 2022; 29 in 2023; and 19 in 2024. Some returned multiple years.
Research has shown that great whites tend to hang around southern and Midcoast Maine — including Phippsburg, Harpswell and Scarborough — where there is a more abundant food supply and increasingly warmer ocean temperatures.
The only documented fatal shark attack in Maine happened in 2020. That death motivated the marine resources department to launch its tracking efforts.
Davis, who focuses on shark research and activity in Maine, said attacks on humans are extreme outliers.