Shark Week: Cape shark research featured in Discovery promo
Cape shark researchers tracking a great white roaming the Outer Cape waters are featured in a Discovery promo for next month’s Shark Week.
Shark scientist Greg Skomal with Massachusetts Marine Fisheries during the Shark Week preview is following Scarface the shark off of Chatham, where it’s staying shallow and only about a couple hundred yards off the beach.
“I think it’s hunting,” Skomal said in the Discovery promo.
Local shark researchers have tagged hundreds of sharks off the Cape during the last decade, including Scarface.
“What we’re hoping to learn with this tag is when do these strikes occur,” Skomal said, as the video shows seals that the sharks feast on along the Cape.
“Does it happen day? Night? Does it happen at dawn? Does it happen at dusk?” the researcher asked. “Is it at high tide? Is it at low tide? How do the sharks get into these seals?”
Finding out these answers is crucial, Skomal said.
“We think it’s going to ultimately lead to saving lives,” he added. “So we want to know how they get that done because we don’t know how they do it.”
Scarface then starts picking up speed to 6 mph in the video and heads north toward Nauset Beach in Orleans.
“He’s closing in on one of the Cape’s most popular beaches,” the Discovery narrator says.
Skomal adds, “This shark is going to go basically right through that swimming area,” followed by the sound of lifeguards blowing whistles for people to get out of the water, a video of a child falling as waves crash at the shore, and then blood in the water.
This year is Shark Week’s 33rd year, and it starts on July 11.
Discovery said it’s continuing to work with nearly two dozen of the world’s most respected marine biologists and science institutions.
The channel added, “Shark Week 2021 will once again deliver incredible brand-new, innovative shark research and compelling insight on some of the most remarkable shark species in the world including the first in utero camera tag in a pregnant Tiger shark, a potentially new Great White mating behavior, and the discovery of an elusive pupping ground.”
from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/3pupYwZ
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