Newly released footage showing a juvenile great white shark snatching a hooked fish beneath the surface illustrates a type of depredation behavior that is increasingly common off Cape Cod, Mass.
The footage was captured by National Geographic Explorer and photographer Brian Skerry, with the cooperation of area charter captains. (See footage below.)
While the footage is rare in that it shows this phenomenon from beneath the surface, great white sharks attacking hooked game fish is not new and has involved fully grown white sharks.
I’m reminded of a period when sport fishing was allowed at Mexico’s Guadalupe Island, which is now a protected biosphere reserve and remains a seasonal home to dozens of adult white sharks.
The accompanying image, captured
years at Guadalupe Island, shows a giant yellowfin tuna that was reeled up minus half of its body.
San Diego’s long-range fleet used to target yellowfin tuna at Guadalupe Island, where sharks that typically preyed on seals and sea lions would gladly attack a 200-pound tuna struggling on a fishing line.
One captain told me that lowering an anchor at Guadalupe was like "ringing the dinner bell" for great white sharks.
The sharks were further conditioned by diving operations that used tuna as chum to lure sharks closer to their cages.
At Cape Cod, a booming gray seal population in recent decades has led to a much larger white shark presence – and more problems involving depredation.
Capt. Hap Farrell told National Geographic: "There have been more and more sharks hitting fish. What we come back with is just the head, and the sharks will come right up to the boat, within four or five feet, chasing what’s left."
This article originally appeared on For The Win: Great white sharks snatching hooked game fish is nothing new
