A buoy has been deployed this week off South Beach to begin collecting data on great white sharks that may be swimming in waters near Martha’s Vineyard.
In recent years, Chatham has been the hotbed of shark sightings, but the Island where the original “Jaws” movie was filmed is no stranger to the ocean’s large-toothed predators.
The buoy was deployed Sunday in 25 feet of water, about ¼ of a mile from the left fork of South Beach, said Ben Ross, an Edgartown seasonal resident who has worked with Greg Skomal, the state Division of Marine Fisheries shark expert, in tagging great whites.
“I was interested with all the seals here how many great whites are out there,” Mr. Ross said. Gray seals are the main meal for great white sharks.
The buoy is equipped with electronics that will gather data from great whites that pass within 300 meters — or about 1,000 feet — of the buoy, he said.
“This is part of a much bigger program we’ve been running throughout the state,” Mr. Skomal said. “It’s all part of efforts to get a sense of where great white sharks spend time in Massachusetts waters.”
The buoy’s been strategically placed in an area where great whites have been spotted in planes out of Katama Airfield, according to Mr. Skomal and Mr. Ross. “Mike Creato has spotted them from his biplane,” Mr. Ross said.
Since Mr. Skomal began his research on great white sharks in earnest in 2009, 110 have been tagged. Most of the sightings have been near Chatham and Orleans, but the buoy deployed is part of an effort both privately and with public agencies like harbormasters to track the ocean giants.
“We’re trying to see, Do they spend time on the eastern shore of Cape Cod, or do they travel around to other parts of the state?” Mr. Skomal said. “We’re trying to cover as much of the state as we can.”
A similar buoy located near Nomans Land last year detected one great white during the month of July, he said.
“At the end of the season, we’ll haul in the receiver and see what kinds of data it has on it,” Mr. Skomal said. “We’ll see whether it tracked any great whites or any other species we have tagged.”
Mr. Skomal is coming to the Island to talk about great white shark research next month.
On Tuesday, Aug. 8, at 7 pm at the Old Whaling Church in Edgartown, Mr. Skomal will offer his insight on the shark population. A donation of $20 is suggested for people attending the event to help fund continued research. “One hundred percent of the donations will go to the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy to help with the studies,” Mr. Ross said. The conservancy was created by Cynthia Wigren to educate the public about great whites.
The bulk of the funding for Mr. Skomal’s tagging program comes from the commonwealth and the nonprofit conservancy group, Mr. Skomal said. The technology and everything else that goes into tagging and tracking great white sharks is expensive, he said: “We try to cobble together as much funding as we can.”
