June 12, 2014 — Scientists from the National Marine Fisheries Service say the great white shark population in the Northwest Atlantic appears to be on the mend thanks largely to a prohibition on landing these huge predators.
Scientists studied data from 649 confirmed great white shark records – both published and unpublished – from various sources going back as far as the 1800's up to 2010.
What emerged, in a paper published yesterday in the online scientific journal Plos One, was a trend of increasing abundance noted across various databases including scientific research, and fisheries interactions both commercial and recreational.
This reversed an earlier trend, also noted in the data, of a fairly steep decline in abundance through the 1970's and 80's when there was a commercial and recreational shark fishery.
Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times