Several New Shark Pups Tagged Off Long Island Coast

MONTAUK, NY — New great white shark pups are making a splash off the coast of Montauk this month, according to experts at OCEARCH.

Gurney, a 4.5 foot, 61.6 lb. male great white shark pup was tagged off Montauk on Aug. 11, and Mission is a 5.08 foot, 66.5 lb. white shark pup also tagged off Montauk on August 17 — and there are more.

During the OCEARCH expedition, pings a'plenty have been recorded, with a bevy baby great white sharks including Gurney, Mission, Finn, JD, Amagansett, Montauk, and Bruin tagged and pinging, as well as blue shark Azul.

According to Chris Fischer, founder of OCEARCH, which has been undertaking an expedition off Montauk in recent days, up to 20Gurney was found in the waters off the coast of Gurney's, hence the apt moniker.
Mission, he said, was named after Mission Bay in San Diego, where Sea World has embarked upon critical conservation work and led to groundbreaking developments in marine reproductive science.

The orange dots on the map above show where the newly tagged sharks have last "pinged."

The two join Finn, another new juvenile great white shark seen just off the coast of the Hamptons last week.
The 5-foot, 79-pound white shark pup has been dubbed "Finn The Great White" or @GreatWhiteFinn by Ocearch, and has pinged at least three times since Monday in locations off Southampton and East Hampton, researchers say.

To track the sharks' path in real time, click here.

According to Fischer, founder of OCEARCH, Finn is a little over a year old, "a nice robust female."
Of the white shark pups tagged, she's the only female, and Fischer said it will be interesting to compare her tracks to the males tagged.

Gurney and Finn are two young-of-the-year great white sharks tagged and released off Montauk by OCEARCH and its team of scientists during their second expedition in New York waters this 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.”

Gurney and Finn were the first two white sharks tagged by the team in New York waters; the tags will allow scientists to track their movements up and down the coast for the next several years.

The team, which includes researchers from NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service, Southampton Schools, Florida Atlantic University, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Stony Brook University, University of South Carolina-Beaufort, Adventure Aquarium, Mote Marine Laboratory, Georgia Aquarium, Mississippi State Aquarium, and University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth, 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 team will be working off Montauk until the end of the week.

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

As Finn and Gurney’s 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.

Since their release, scores have been following the pups on Twitter, with Gurney, @Gurney_Shark, and Finn @GreatWhiteFinn captivating their audience and helping to teach about the natural environment and dispel "Jaws" inspired fears about sharks to the public.

"This is great as we continue to take the steps to reveal the great white shark pupping ground,” said Fischer, also the OCEARCH expedition leader. “It's this kind of scientific data that will help us collectively
make more informed decisions about how to protect this incredible species.

Fischer said a total of 20 sharks have been studied on the expedition so far. "We've been busy out here," he said.

Approximately 10 pups have been tagged, he added. "We're thrilled," Fischer said. "We only have one more of the tags that we usually use and 4 experimental tags, to test new technologies. We didn't know if we'd get close to testing the experimental tags, and now, we're only one away, so we're excited about it. It's nice to tag out."

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.

"If you have predictable access, you can plan; it's something you can count on to drive research and data. I think we are learning we have found something we can lean on for the future, with predictable access, and that's a big deal," Fischer said. "Locating predictable access around the world is extremely difficult."

Finding predictable access off Montauk means more sharks can be studied, "with more learned for less money," he said. "The single biggest thing we've learned on this expedition is that there's predictable access."

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."

It's important to understand where all the pups are moving during their first few years; last year was the first time since the shark nursery was found off the coast of Montauk that researchers were able to tag a total of 9 sharks and follow them over the course of a year. Those pups traveled from Montauk to South Carolina and back, Fischer said.

Conditions are 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.

He added, "It really looks exciting. From anecdotal observation, under the current level of pressure, things really seem to be moving in the right direction."

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.

Manhattan was tagged August 23, 2016 off Montauk, Curtis said. He departed New York waters in early November, 2016, reached the Outer Banks of North Carolina in December, 2016, and began traveling north again in early May, 2017.

Lead scientist on the team tagging the baby sharks last year, Curtis said the historic process of monitoring the pups since birth has been invaluable.

"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 sharkswas 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.

Montauk, as planned

"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.

As for those who are fearful of the sharks' return, Curtis said they needn't worry. "I tell people the sharks are there, and they've always been there, whether you notice them or not. It's never been an issue. The fact that we have sharks is a sign of a healthy ocean and environment." And, he added, "There's nothing to worry about."

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

Photos, video courtesy of OCEARCH