SCARBOROUGH, Maine – Rick Clough spent about four decades fishing for lobster and sea urchin off the coast of Maine before spotting one of the ocean’s most recognized predators – a Great White Shark in the area.
An approximately 8-foot (2.4-meter) shark seen off the beach town of Scarborough in July surprised Claude but didn’t make him afraid of the ocean—although he admitted, “I’m not sure I’d want to go pee diving right now.”
Boaters, beachgoers and fishermen like Clough, who spend time in the chilly Atlantic waters of New England and Canada, are learning to live with great white sharks, the creatures made famous by the 1975 film “Jaws.” Sightings of the apex predators are up in places like Maine, where they were once very rarely spotted.
Scientists link the sightings of great white sharks to the increased availability of sharks, and say beachgoers are generally very safe from shark bites. The sharks can grow to nearly 20 feet (6 meters) long, although most are not that big.
David Lancaster, a commercial clam digger in Scarborough, used a drone to spot a shark measuring about 12 feet (3.6 meters) near the town’s famous beaches earlier this month. He described the animal as “magnificent” and “truly amazing” to see. But he also said the shark’s presence reminded him that swimmers need to be careful of big fish.
Great white sightings off Cape Cod, Massachusetts, have become increasingly common in recent years, and the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy has documented hundreds of the animals over more than a decade. But new data shows the sharks are traveling even further north to New Hampshire, Maine and beyond, said Greg Skomal, a senior fisheries biologist with the Massachusetts Department of Marine Fisheries and a veteran great white shark researcher.
The number of great white sharks detected off Halifax, Nova Scotia, has increased by about 2.5 times, according to a paper published by Skomal and others in May in the journal Marine Ecology Progress Series. Even further north, the number detected in Cabot Strait, which separates Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, has increased by almost four times, the paper says.
Skomal said the average residency in these northern waters has also increased from 48 days to 70 days, suggesting that white sharks seem increasingly comfortable further north.
The main reason for the shift appears to be the successful conservation of the Seal Of New England and Canada through laws like the Marine Mammal Protection Act, which have allowed the seals to thrive and provide a food source for predatory sharks, Skomal said.
“It could be a function of the growing prey base,” Skomal said. “And that would be seals.”
Great white sharks also benefit from protections, including a ban on fishing them in U.S. federal waters that has been in place since 1997. They are still considered vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
In Massachusetts, the Department of Marine Fisheries announced it was tightening its fishing laws after fishermen chose to target great white sharks in 2024. The state banned the use of certain types of heavy fishing gear in areas of the coastline where great white sharks are most commonly found.
“We here in Massachusetts believe that targeting great white sharks from the beach is not a safe practice,” Skomal said. “Not only because it could result in shark deaths, but also because it could be a public safety issue.”
Despite the sharks’ size and strength, dangerous encounters between great white sharks and humans are rare. According to the International Shark Attack File at the Florida Museum of Natural History, there have been fewer than 60 fatal great white shark bites on humans in recorded history.
The first recorded fatal shark attack in Maine occurred in 2020, when a great white shark killed 63-year-old Julia Dimperio Holowach off Bailey Island.
“This is an extremely rare event. But we’re providing all this information to mitigate human behavior and hopefully reduce any negative encounters between people and sharks,” said Ashleigh Novak, research coordinator for the Atlantic Great White Shark Conservancy.
The rise of social media has made shark sightings go viral in recent summers. A smartphone app called SharkWatch also allows shark watchers to report their sightings.
Mourner Lancaster said living with great whites is just something people in New England will have to adapt to.
“It’s crazy that they’re around, like fishermen and surfers, and it’s something we have to accept,” Lancaster said. “It’s in the back of your head, but you have to accept it.”
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Associated Press photojournalist Robert F. Bucati contributed to this story in Scarborough, Maine.
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This story was supported by funding from the Walton Family Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
