Fishing along Cape Cod these days? There’s a chance you could hook a large apex predator.
After multiple fishermen reported great white sharks jumping out of the water to grab striped bass on fishing lines, the latest shark and fishermen encounter involved a great white getting hooked by a bass fisherman’s lure.
Triton Sportfishing — based out of Rock Harbor, Orleans — recently caught a white shark when the apex predator took a bite on a bass lure.
“Catch of the day right there,” a crew member said in a video of the hooked great white shark.
“New England is swimming with sharks this year, and this crew got an up close look at this beautiful, wild creature,” Triton Sportfishing posted, later adding, “You never know what you’re going to get when you go fishing in Cape Cod!”
The great white shark was let go after it was hooked. The sharks are federally protected, and fishermen must release them.
“Lots of bass fishermen are having interactions with white sharks,” wrote MA Sharks, which is run by local shark researcher John Chisholm, who confirms shark sightings with the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy’s Sharktivity app.
“If you have an encounter please report it,” MA Sharks added. “You can use the #Sharktivity app.”
On Wednesday, the Sharktivity app was lighting up with shark alerts close to shore.
A white shark was spotted about a half-mile off of Callanan’s Pass in Orleans at around 10:16 a.m.
Then a shark in the early afternoon was seen off of Chatham.
“!! SHARK ALERT !! White shark spotted by pilot moving south 50 yards off North Beach Island, towards the inlet,” MA Sharks tweeted.
Meanwhile, up on the North Shore in Ipswich, a thresher shark washed up on Crane Beach earlier this week.
“Once staff were made aware, they followed our protocol of notifying the New England Aquarium and the Seacoast Science Center in Rye, NH,” said Mary Dettloff, of The Trustees of Reservations. “We typically report marine mammals dead or alive and usually bury dead mammals if they are not collected.
“Staff always bury fish that wash up, including striped bass, bluefish, and bluefin tuna parts,” the spokesperson added. “We have not notified other agencies of dead fish in the past but did so in this case due to the size and infrequency of large shark wash ups.”