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If you’ve ever wondered why sharks are coming to Long Island, and in particular great white sharks (Carcharodon Carcharias), research has discovered something very interesting off the Long Island coast, but in particular Montauk Point, Long Island.
Many of the great white sharks that are coming to Long Island are coming from the birthing site that was discovered in 2016 by Ocearch off Montauk Long Island. These young great white sharks are thought to remain in the area for at least 20 years until they reach maturity.
If you would love to dive with great white sharks, one of the best ways to do this is to book yourself on a scuba diving liveaboard that visits Guadalupe Island in Mexico. You can check the latest and best deals on liveaboards using the following window:
Why Are Sharks Coming To Long Island – Montauk great white shark – image courtesy of Ocearch
North Atlantic birthing site of great white sharks
The above image shows the location of the great white shark birthing site off Montauk, Long Island and the movements of appropriately named young white shark Montauk. Montauk is one of three great white sharks that have pinged in Long Island Sound and is likely one of the white sharks born in this North Atlantic birth place for great white sharks.
Great white shark Montauk was first tagged on 18th August 2016, when she was 55lbs (25kg) and 4′ 8″ (1.42 metres) long. Great white sharks are up to around 5′ (1.52 metres) in length when they are first born, which is why Ocearch knew they had found this North Atlantic great white shark birthing ground.
The theory is that adult great white sharks are mating off Cape Cod and then giving birth to their pups off Long Island.
The reason why seas off Long Island are frequented by great white sharks is because the water temperature are right for them. For example the water temperature inside Long Island Sounds stays above 14.8°C (55.8°F) in May through to 14.6°C (56.8°F) in November, with a high of around 24.7°C (74.9°F) in August time.
Great white sharks prefer water temperatures between 12-24°C (54-75 °F), which means they may visit Long Island Sound between the months of May and November each year when water temperatures in the sound are within this range.
Why are there so many sharks in Long Island?
The numbers of great white sharks in Long Island have increased because one of their food sources, the menhaden fish, have increased too. The increase in numbers of menhaden fish is due to legislation prohibiting the overfishing of these and bunker fish, another food source of great white sharks.
Why Are Sharks Coming To Long Island – Scotia Great White Shark Detail – Image courtesy of Ocearch
Great white shark Scotia pings off Long Island
Another young great white shark pinged off Long Island and known to go into Long Island Sound is Scotia. It is also likely that Scotia was born at the Montauk great white shark birthing site too.
Great white shark Scotia was an 11′ 1″ (3.38 metre) female white shark weighing 767lbs (348kg) when she was first tagged. When tagged she was classed as a sub-adult shark which was on 1 October 2019 at Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, hence her name.
Why Are Sharks Coming To Long Island – Genie first great white shark – image courtesy of Ocearch
First great white shark tagged in the North Atlantic
The first great white shark tagged in the Northern Atlantic was female white shark Genie. Genie weighed just over 2,000lbs (907kg) and measured 14′ 8″ (4.47 metres) at the time of capture by Ocearch, and is thought to come to the area off Montauk, Long Island to give birth to baby great white sharks.
Footage of the capture of Genie is included in the video below.
Young great white sharks off Long Island
In the below video with Jeff Glor, CBS This Morning, Ocearch capture three young sharks on that day, which indicates why there is the birthing site off Long Island. These great white sharks are unharmed during their capture on a hydraulic lift to make the tagging easy.
In addition to being tagged, each white shark is measured along with the taking of blood and tissue samples for research purposes and muscle biopsy.
The aim of Ocearch is to have each great white shark on-and-off the hydraulic lift within 15 minutes to avoid unnecessary stress to the animals.
Ocearch discovers great white shark birth site off NY coast History is being made this week in the waters off Long Island, New York, as Ocearch says it’s found the first-known birthing site for great white sharks on the north Atlantic coast. In less than a week, the team has fitted nine young sharks with locator tags, which will allow researchers to track their movements. Only on “CBS This Morning,” Jeff Glor takes a behind-the-scene look at their efforts.
Final thoughts on why are sharks coming to Long Island
If you’ve only just realised that great white sharks are coming to Long Island, and visiting Long Island Sound, this shouldn’t worry you. Great whites have lived in the North Atlantic for thousands of years and been happy living off this part of the U.S. Coastline. Great white sharks in Long Island are simply going about their business, feeding on fish and mostly keeping away from human activity.
When I told my wife that great white sharks visit Long Island Sound, she was surprised. My wife used to live on Long Island and would go to the beach on Long Island Sound on many occasions and swim in the sea without a problem, and without ever having seen a great white shark.
If you are surprised about great white sharks in Long Island and in the Sound, you may also be interested to read other places where great white sharks can be found, some places were a big surprise to me: Where Do You Find Great White Sharks (A Few Big Surprises!).
I hope you enjoyed this article about why are sharks coming to Long Island
If this article hasn’t answered all of your questions. If you have more questions either about snorkelling or scuba diving (or specifically about why are sharks coming to Long Island), please comment below with your questions.
There will also be many more articles about scuba and scuba diving safety tips (and on snorkelling too) for you to read and learn about this fabulous sport.
Why Are Sharks Coming To Long Island?
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Article written by Russell Bowyer who has been a scuba diver since diving on the Great Barrier Reef in Australia in 1989. After his first dive he trained as a BSAC diver in the UK. He attained his Diver Leader certification with BSAC. He then went on to become a scuba diving instructor, teaching others how to dive and was voted as Diving Officer and Treasurer for the Saffron Walden BSAC club too. Russell has dived all over the world, including the UK, on liveaboards in the Red Sea, the Caribbean, South Africa and the USA. Russell is experienced in all dive types, including drift diving, deep dives that involved decompression stops and recreational dives too.
