{"id":159685,"date":"2025-09-21T17:30:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-21T17:30:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/159685\/"},"modified":"2025-09-21T17:30:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-21T17:30:07","slug":"something-we-have-to-accept","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/159685\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Something we have to accept’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Great white shark sightings in northern New England waters have ramped up in recent months<\/a>. Here’s why that’s a bad thing.<\/p>\n

What’s happening?<\/p>\n

Due to increased seal populations, great white shark sightings in the Cape Cod area of the northern Atlantic have risen in recent years.<\/p>\n

However, new research is showing that the infamous shark species is moving even further north into New Hampshire, Maine, and Canadian waters.<\/p>\n

The number of great whites detected off Canadian coasts has more than doubled from 2018 to 2022, according to<\/a> a paper published by researchers in the Marine Ecology Progress Series.<\/p>\n

Greg Skomal, a senior fisheries biologist with the Massachusetts Department of Marine Fisheries and a veteran white shark researcher, told the Associated Press: “It could be a function of a growing prey base, and that would be seals.”<\/p>\n

Locals in the area have noticed the shift as well. “It’s crazy that they are around, as fishermen and surfers, and something we have to accept,” a local surfer told the AP. “It’s in the back of your head, but you have to accept it.”<\/p>\n

Why is this shift dangerous?<\/p>\n

Experts warn that, while rare, the general public in these northeastern states should be cautious about shark attacks.<\/p>\n

Because locals typically don’t have to worry about great whites when they visit their local beaches, many aren’t aware of the rising danger.<\/p>\n

The first recorded shark fatality in Maine happened in 2020 when a great white killed a 63-year-old off Bailey Island.<\/p>\n

Ashleigh Novak, research coordinator with the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy, told the AP: “It’s an exceedingly rare event. But we’re providing all of this information to mitigate human behavior and hopefully reduce any negative encounters between humans and sharks.”<\/p>\n

Another reason to be concerned about this shift is that it may indicate a broader environmental issue. Many experts caution that rising ocean temperatures have pushed traditional nursery grounds northward.<\/p>\n

What’s being done about it?<\/p>\n

Government agencies, researchers, and conservation groups are taking steps to both protect sharks and safeguard people.<\/p>\n

Nonprofits are working to track shark movements and share real-time data with the public. Tools like the Sharktivity<\/a> app allow spotters to log sightings, helping swimmers and surfers know when sharks are nearby.<\/p>\n

Join our free newsletter<\/a> for good news and useful tips, and don’t miss this cool list<\/a> of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Great white shark sightings in northern New England waters have ramped up in recent months. Here’s why that’s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":159686,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[49,48,83276,11592,83275,83273,83274,66,4777,21433,323],"class_list":["post-159685","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canadian-waters","tag-great-white-shark","tag-marine-ecology-progress-series","tag-massachusetts-department-of-marine-fisheries","tag-northern-new-england","tag-science","tag-shark","tag-shark-attacks","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159685","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=159685"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159685\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/159686"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=159685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=159685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=159685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}