2 Great White Sharks Hanging Out Off Coast Of Hamptons

EAST HAMPTON, NY — Summer may be over but two baby great white shark pups who made a splash off the coast of Montauk this summer don't want to leave the Hamptons.

According to experts at OCEARCH, Gurney and JDtheShark are still frolicking in the surf off locations in Southampton Town, near East Quogue on Tuesday morning.

Gurney, an immature 4.5 foot, 61.6 lb. male great white shark pup, was tagged off Montauk on Aug. 11; DJ the Shark "is is named by the artist and ocean lover Jimmy Buffett, after his father James Delaney, according to OCEARCH, weighing in at 74.2 lbs, 5'4 long, and tagged on Aug. 14 off Montauk.

Also tagged on OCEARCH's August were Mission, a 5.08 foot, 66.5 lb. white shark pup, with a a bevy of baby great white sharks also including Finn, Amagansett, Montauk, and Bruin tagged and pinging, as well as blue shark Azul.

According to Chris Fischer, founder of OCEARCH, Gurney was found in the waters off the coast of Gurney's, hence the apt moniker.

Finn, another new juvenile great white shark seen just off the coast of the Hamptons, also made headlines.

The 5-foot, 79-pound white shark pup has been dubbed "Finn The Great White" or @GreatWhiteFinn by Ocearch, and has pinged in locations off Southampton and East Hampton, researchers say.

The immature great white sharks were tagged and released off Montauk by OCEARCH and its team of scientists during their second expedition in New York waters in August.

“We've learned a lot about the adult sharks in recent years, but the pups are still a complete mystery,” said Tobey Curtis, lead scientist and fisheries manager at NOAA Fisheries. “Tagging these baby white sharks will help us better understand how essential Long Island waters are for their survival.”

The tags will allow scientists to track their movements up and down the coast for the next several years.

The team collected blood samples, fin clips, parasites, muscle sample and took measurements of the sharks.

Each sample provides essential baseline data that wasn't previously available for great white sharks in the first initial phases of life, a release from OCEARCH said.

The team also satellite-tagged a sandbar and blue shark, and acoustically-tagged two blue, one mako, and one dusky shark.

“The presence of these apex predators is a good sign of the ecological health of our local ocean,” Curtis said.

As the sharks' fins breaks the surface, their satellite tags will transmit their location, allowing anyone to follow their movements by accessing the near-real time, free online Global Shark Tracker or by downloading the Global Shark Tracker App available for Apple and Android platforms on the OCEARCH website.

The discovery of the pups just confirms that last year's discovery and tagging of 9 pups meant the possibility of a birthing and nursery area off Montauk, Fischer said.

What's critical is that the discovery of the pups means there is "predictable access" at the site, Fischer said.

He added, "We can lean on this region and we will solve the puzzle of the first couple of years of the white shark's life, which is essential."

The pups discovered last year traveled from Montauk to South Carolina and back, Fischer said.

Conditions were ideal this year, Fischer said. "Things are looking beautiful out here this year," with a robust number of menhaden, he said.

"The system looks healthy and robust, and the baby great whites are able to flourish. That's important because if they go, the system goes," Fischer said.

Researchers have been watching the waters off Montauk avidly: In May, a 5-foot, 72-pound white shark pup tagged off Montauk last summer was the first to return to the area 9 months later, just in time for the summer season.

According to Curtis, "Manhattan" was the first of the nine pups tagged in the great white shark nursery last summer to complete the first full loop of the migration cycle.

"We're all kind of learning at the same pace. It's kind of cool," Curtis said. "The OCEARCH platform helped us to dial in to where the little guys were hanging out. Looking at the historical research and bringing it up to date, as well as doing something new, it's very rewarding," he said.

In March, experts said a baby boom of great white sharks was expected to head to the area in the coming months — with the massive mama sharks are about to head to the nursery, located off the coast of Montauk, for the big event.

A birthing area off Montauk

"You guys are sitting in a birthing area," Fischer told Patch in an interview. "My best guess would be that the large mature females are going to be coming in during May and June and dropping off their pups in New York, New Jersey and on Long Island — out to Montauk."

The female sharks will drop off the pups and leave, he said.

When the 3,400 lb. great white shark Mary Lee made headlines last year, moving in the New York and New Jersey area and then, spending time near Southampton and then Montauk, the thought was that she may have given birth.

Then, after looking at a scientific paper authored by Jack Casey and Wes Pratt, and another by Curtis, the OCEARCH team caught 9 pups, lifted them up onto the ship, and performed research projects including taking gas, blood and tissue samples.

New umbilical scars on the pups indicated that the area off Montauk was, indeed, a birthing site, Fischer said, with the pups one to three months old.

Now that the pups are being tracked, a whole new age of discovery has evolved, Fisher said. "Now we are watching the young of the year, watching them define the nursery of the great white shark."

That first year, he explained, is when the pups are most vulnerable. Once they're larger and older, they can avoid various types of gear and danger.

And if the researchers can help those pups succeed, it will be a win-win for future generations, Fischer said.
"They're the lions of the ocean, the balance keepers," he said.

To read that full prior Patch report on the shark pup tagging, click here.

Photos courtesy of OCEARCH.