New Shark Pup, 'Great White Finn,' Spotted Off Long Island: Video, Photos

A new juvenile Great White Shark has been seen just off the coast of the Hamptons this week.

The 4-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.

According to Chris Fischer, founder of OCEARCH, Finn is a little over a year old, "a nice robust female."

Of the four shark pups tagged, she's the only female, and Fischer said it will be interesting to compare her tracks to the three males tagged.

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.

An OCEARCH vessel is out in Montauk through Aug. 25 right now, collecting data. On Wednesday, Fischer said researchers were in a bay because a "huge hurricane swell" was rolling up; research will continue Thursday.

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."

According to Tobey Curtis, shark researcher with the National Oceanic Atmospheric Fisheries Service, the pup, Finn, is the second of four immature white sharks tagged so far this year as part of OCEARCH’s 'Expedition New York.' We’re looking forward to seeing the movement data produced by Finn and the other tagged sharks, which will ultimately help us better understand how white sharks use their nursery grounds off Long Island. We hope to catch some more sharks in the coming week and further boost our sample size," he said.

Curtis added that the data collected "from Finn and the other white sharks we’ve sampled will provide many new insights into the ecology, physiology, and behavior of young white sharks in this productive region off the New York coast."

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.

Seeing the first pup return home was "exciting," Curtis said. "It confirms the first year migration pattern of these sharks."

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 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.

Last year, researchers tagged pups at the first North Atlantic nursery for the Great White shark in the waters off Montauk, and this year, with the baby sharks tagged, more information than ever before is available to the public, who've taken to avidly following the sharks on social media.

This spring, according to The Virginian-Pilot, there was a "shark party" just off the southeastern coast, with 11 sharks tagged by OCEARCH.org pinging and revealing their locations via satellite.

"You guys are sitting in a birthing area"

"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.

Understanding how they move through the nursery helps ensure an abundance of the entire ecosystem and "an abundance of fish that our future children will eat," Fischer said.

Sharks, Fischer added, live to be more than 70 years old and are not even sexually mature until they are 20; they give birth every other year with an 18-month gestation period. They usually give birth to an average of eight babies that are four and a half feet long and 45 lbs.

The baby great whites off Montauk are balancing the in-shore system, chasing menhaden, mackerel and squid, "eating the weak, the dead and dying so the strong will survive. They're the balance keepers of the water here. When they grow up, they're the balance keepers of the whole North Atlantic."

Shark fears, be gone
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."

Not only are the sharks spending their time a mile or two off the beach, when the pups head north, they will still only be between 4 to 5 feet long. While they have teeth, and can bite, "they are not a serious threat," Curtis said.

To read that full prior Patch report on the shark pup tagging, click here.
Photos, video courtesy of OCEARCH.