Used to be that if you wanted to see a Great White shark, you had to venture south into the warm waters native to Discovery Channel camera crews. Now, as CBS News reports, with climate change throwing ocean temperatures out of whack, you can find them off the coast of Maine as an all-too-real and all-too-on-the-nose reminder that this year is the 50th anniversary of Jaws.
New data shows that Great White sightings in places like Maine and Nova Scotia have surged over the last few years, and it’s thanks to a buffet of seals in the Gulf of Maine and Atlantic Canada.
According to Maine’s Department of Marine Resources, 93 individual great whites have been detected since 2020, with 19 showing up this year alone. Nova Scotia’s numbers are even more dramatic, with shark detections off Halifax increasing 2.5 times between 2018 and 2022, and nearly quadrupling in the Cabot Strait farther north.
Great White Sharks Are Everywhere Along Maine’s Coast Right Now
Shark experts want you to chill out about the dangers of Great Whites, even if they are appearing in larger numbers. Yes, one fatal attack occurred in Maine in 2020. But it was the state’s first-ever fatal shark attack.
Just because you watched a shark attack compilation video on YouTube doesn’t change the fact that unprovoked shark attacks remain extremely rare, and fatal ones are even rarer.
Maine has only recorded two since 1837. And while the Great White holds the record for most documented shark attacks on humans globally at 351, the number of fatalities is just 59. That’s over decades. You’re statistically more likely to be crushed to death by a vending machine. Seriously.
Besides the big celebrity predator that gets all the headlines, Maine waters host a variety of other sharks, from the docile basking shark to the blue shark and porbeagle. Most are harmless, or at least disinterested in anything you’ve got going on.
As white sharks migrate north, scientists are tracking them more closely, attempting to understand how climate change, prey availability, and other factors are influencing their migratory patterns.
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