You’re gonna need a bigger catalog.
Cape Cod shark researchers identified nearly 100 “new” great whites last year, bringing the total to more than 700 sharks over the last decade.
The Atlantic White Shark Conservancy has updated its publicly available “White Shark Catalog” with 2023 data gathered from Nova Scotia to Florida. That includes one of the top highlights from last year when researchers tagged the massive 14-foot white shark “LeeBeth.”
“Individual white sharks travel thousands of miles along the eastern coast of the United States and Canada over the course of the year,” said AWSC Senior Scientist Megan Winton.
“Thanks to the work of our team, our collaborators, and the fishermen, divers, and boaters who provided videos or images of white sharks, we identified 91 new individuals in 2023,” Winton said. “We’ve been able to grow the Catalog to over 700 individual white sharks documented in the Northwest Atlantic, making it one of the largest photo-ID databases of individual white sharks worldwide.”
Winton worked with Chip Michalove of Outcast Sportfishing to tag LeeBeth in December. LeeBeth recently made shark science history by traveling into the waters off Matamoros, Mexico — the furthest west a white shark has ever been tracked into the Gulf of Mexico.
White sharks can be distinguished and identified based on their unique coloration, markings on the gills and fins, and dorsal fin profiles.
AWSC researchers, working with Greg Skomal of the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, use underwater video footage of white sharks collected along the Cape to document and match each shark encountered with previously identified individuals using the Catalog.
This allows researchers to determine whether an individual has been seen before. “New” sharks are entered into the Catalog and assigned a nickname, many of which are inspired by that individual’s unique markings. Once an individual is entered into the Catalog, researchers can keep records of when and where that shark was seen over time.
From footage collected during 22 research trips off the Cape last year, the AWSC team identified 36 new individuals and documented the return of 44 sharks that had been identified in previous years.
Through collaborations with researchers in Canada, the AWSC team identified an additional 39 new individuals and recognized four sharks previously documented off Cape Cod in videos collected by Fisheries and Oceans Canada in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, and Atlantic Shark Expeditions off the coast of Nova Scotia.
Eleven new sharks were identified in video footage sent to AWSC by boaters, divers, and fishermen.
If members of the public capture footage of a white shark in the waters along the Atlantic coast of the U.S. or Canada or in the Gulf of Mexico, they can contribute it to the White Shark Logbook by emailing info@atlanticwhiteshark.org.