Great white shark tracked off town’s shoreline
GREENWICH — A great white shark tracked by a marine science organization turned up in the waters off Greenwich on Monday.
OCEARCH, a research and educational organization, tagged the 9-foot male shark off Nova Scotia last year with a digital monitor and named it “Cabot.” Since then, the shark’s travels through the ocean have been monitored by OCEARCH and then posted on social media.
It appears he has been enjoying the refreshing waters of Long Island Sound off Greenwich, with a “ping” marked just off shore.
“Hello Greenwich how are you today?!” the shark’s monitors posted via Twitter.
OCEARCH has tagged hundreds of sea animals, including sharks, whales and turtles. It calls itself a data-centric organization built to help scientists collect previously unattainable data in the ocean.
As word spread throughout the day of the shark, the OCEARCH website became overloaded. “Oops...looks like my little stunt visiting the Long Island Sound overloaded the @OCEARCH tracker!!! My bad. The Tracker is running kinda slow since you many of you logged on to check out where I’m at.” said a Tweet from @GWSharkCabot in the late afternoon.
Cabot, named after the explorer John Cabot, has been found off Florida and Maryland in recent months.
The Bruce Museum got into the fun, too. They tweeted, “Cabot welcome to
Greenwich. You must come to our Sharks! exhibition and compare your jaws and teeth with some of the 20 different species we have on view till September 1.”
Dave Sigworth, a spokesman for the Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk, said it would be unusual for a great white to be found in the Sound. The staff at the aquarium is interested in following Cabot’s movements and getting more data on the apparent discovery, Sigworth said.
It appeared that OCEARCH had noted the presence of a great white in the Sound a few years ago — a shark named Montauk was supposedly found near Guilford in September 2016, Sigworth said.
The great white shark doesn’t appear to pose a risk to the public, Sigworth said. “I wouldn’t worry about it, if people want to swim in Long Island Sound,” he said.
The local waters are home to four native species of sharks: sand tigers, brown sharks (also known as sandbar sharks) and two species of dogfish. Great whites are fairly common in Block Island Sound, Sigworth said.
“It’s all about food — they’ll eat other types of fish, and seals,” Sigworth said, “Who’s to say one wouldn’t stick his toe in Long Island Sound once in a while?”
It was important to leave the big fish in peace. “The last thing we want is for everybody to jump in a boat to try and find him. Leave him alone,” Sigworth said.
The last time a person was attacked by a shark in the Sound was in 1961, according to Sigworth, on the north shore of Long Island.
Greenwich Harbor Master Ian Macmillan said the public shouldn’t be alarmed, though kite surfers around Tod’s Point might want to exercise some extra vigilance.
“Not a problem,” Macmillan said. “I think it’s probably well fed.”
Water quality in the Sound has been improving in recent years, he said, and seeing new kinds of aquatic life in the region was a good thing. “Diversification is a positive,” he said.
The data on sharks and other forms of sea life being collected by OCEARCH was valuable, said Sigworth, the aquarium spokesman. “What they’re learning about sharks in commendable — and it’s fun to watch,” he said.
The attention to Cabot’s travels in the Sound was so intense that OCEARCH’s tracking software on social media was put out of commission Monday afternoon.
“It’s all about food — they’ll eat other types of fish, and seals. Who’s to say one wouldn’t stick his toe in Long Island Sound once in a while?”
Dave Sigworth, a Maritime Aquarium spokesman