As people head to the beach this summer, some popular locations along the East Coast of the United States are already tracking sharks — with a few getting close to New York and New Jersey.
Quint, a 9-foot, 8-inch white shark was tracked Wednesday off the South Shore of Long Island, due south from Fire Island, according to a tracker by OCEARCH, an organization that helps scientists collect data from the oceans.
Nori, a nearly 9-foot white shark, was recently tracked very close to the shore of the Hamptons on May 8, but has been tracked off the coast of Maine and Newfoundland, Canada, more recently.
It comes as researchers are on the lookout for a new shark species as the summer beach season kicks off. Experts at the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy are getting a shark’s eye view through camera tags, helping them observe and track the marine animal’s behavior.
The scientists are also tracking what is believed to be new behavior from a one species called the dusky shark. A 2025 report found that dusky sharks have been spotted recently near Nantucket, and have been caught on camera for the first time ever chasing a seal.
“Studying that dusky shark predatory beavior, that predator-prey interaction with seals in depth, it’s all very new,” Megan Winton, a senior scientist at the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy, told NBC Boston. “I know not everybody is going to be thrilled that there’s now a second species of shark hunting for seals in the waters off our beaches.”
While not as big as its white shark cousin, the dusky shark is often identifiable by a crescent moon tail, round snout and snake-like movement. Both species tend to swim in shallow waters close to shore as they hunt for food, something that all beachgoers should be aware of.
Experts say unprovoked attacks by dusky sharks are incredibly rare and have actually decreased in the past five years. But beachgoers should still avoid getting in between the sharks and their prey.
JC Monahan and Marc Fortier of NBC Boston contributed to this report.