The shark was found near a dead humpback whale southeast of Block Island.
An eight-foot white shark was spotted near a whale carcass southeast of Block Island in late June. Atlantic Shark Institute / Jon Dodd
Researchers recently captured stunning footage of a great white shark swimming near a whale carcass off the coast of Block Island, a rare experience that came after a long search in the waters off Rhode Island.
Jon Dodd, executive director of the Rhode Island-based Atlantic Shark Institute, received an alert in late June that a humpback whale had died and was floating around the ocean near Block Island. He reached out to Sarah Callan, manager of animal rescue at the Mystic Aquarium, to plan an excursion to find the dead animal. Dodd knew Callan would be interested in collecting samples from the whale, and Dodd hoped to spot a white shark feeding on it.
But even a dead 40-foot humpback can be hard to track down.
“It’s a big ocean. You’d think a whale would pop out of it, but it’s not that easy when you’re on the ocean and there’s whitecaps and waves and everything else,” Dodd said.
The pair set out for the whale’s last known coordinates early on the morning of June 25. It had drifted off since then, and Dodd and Callan put out a radio call asking fishermen to be on the lookout. They didn’t hear anything back.
Using calculations based on wind and tide data, the duo scoured more than 50 square miles of ocean looking for the whale.
“We were feeling pretty despondent,” Dodd said.
After several hours, as they were on the verge of heading back to shore, Callan spotted a dark lump protruding from the ocean southeast of Block Island. Birds flocked above the whale. Under the surface, a shadow moved.
Dodd submerged a camera, and captured one of the planet’s most iconic predators in stunning clarity.
“We were extremely lucky,” Dodd said.
The shark was about eight feet long and appeared to be in exceptional health. It had no scarring and had not been tagged by scientists. Dodd believes it was a juvenile based on its size. He was unable to determine its sex but is still reviewing footage to see if he can learn more.
“The shark was in great shape, and my sense is it probably would have hung on to that whale for a lot longer but a couple days later [the whale] hit the beach on Block Island and that was the end of that,” Dodd said.
So far, Rhode Island has seen a “pretty sharky summer” with a number of notable sightings, he added. In May, a porbeagle shark made its way from the ocean into Billington Cove, where it beached and died. A few days ago, a thresher shark washed up on a beach in Warwick. Dodd and his colleagues have caught and tagged a number of mako sharks and have also seen multiple sand tiger sharks.
Perhaps the most dramatic shark-related incident of the summer so far occurred on Nantucket when a veteran angler reeled in a white shark. He deftly removed the hook from the shark’s mouth and helped it swim back into the surf.
Ross CristantielloStaff Writer
Ross Cristantiello, a general assignment news reporter for Boston.com since 2022, covers local politics, crime, the environment, and more.
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