A great white shark swims off the coast of Chatham, Massachusetts on July 21, 2024. Sharks come to Cape Cod every summer to feed on the abundant seal population that lives there, especially in Chatham where there is a large seal population. Credit - Joseph Prezioso—AFP via Getty Images
Great White Sharks are flocking to the waters that served as the setting of 'Jaws,' with sightings spiking along the northern Atlantic Coast.
New data shows that sharks are being detected more frequently in the chillier waters off New England, home to the fictional Amity Island of Steven Spielberg’s iconic 1975 epic, and where sightings were previously rare.
The Maine Department of Marine Resources (DMR) identified 93 great white sharks off its coast from 2020-2024, according to data cited by the Associated Press. Spielberg’s movie about a giant shark terrorizing a small fishing town was filmed in Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, just down the coastline.
The AP also cited a study in the journal Marine Ecology Progress Series that found the number of white sharks detected off the coast of Halifax, Nova Scotia, increased about 2.5 times from 2018 to 2022.
Further south in Long Island, the setting of the original Peter Benchley novel later adapted by Spielberg for the screen, shark sightings are also becoming more common.
Read more: What to Do if You Come in Contact With a Shark
The reasons for the new arrivals along the coast are mixed. Recent studies by the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy (AWSC) suggest that conservation efforts to protect sharks and their seal prey along the coast may have caused the shark population to rise.
Sharks are migratory animals—they spend the summer months in more temperate waters before migrating to much warmer waters in the winter. But the AWSC notes sea temperatures are warming faster in the Gulf of Maine than in 99% of the global ocean—meaning several species of sharks are staying north much longer.
The DMR began monitoring shark movements in the state following Maine's first-ever fatal shark attack in July 2020, when a 63-year-old woman was killed while swimming just 20 yards off the coast. On these coastal Main beaches, emergency bleed kits have been installed, following the lead of other New England states, a first-aid kit for shark attack victims.
Despite the reputation given to them by 'Jaws,' shark attacks are still incredibly rare. The 2020 attack was just the second recorded instance in Maine since 1837, according to the Florida Museum of Natural History in Gainesville, which tracks shark encounters through the International Shark Attack File (ISAF).
Gavin Naylor, director of ISAF, told TIME last year that sharks tend to keep to themselves and that people can often be swimming near sharks without realizing it, since they tend to swim 100 to 200 yards offshore.
Furthermore, ISAF’s 2024 report found that the global total of unprovoked shark bites in 2024 was significantly lower than average in the past five years—though the United States once again led the world, recording the most unprovoked shark bites in 2024, with 28 confirmed cases. Although sharks are moving north with more frequency, Florida’s warm waters still lead with the most cases of unprovoked shark attacks last year.
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