December 2, 2020 — The great white shark now has an international consortium of governments, universities, and private groups — including authorities from Massachusetts — studying the fearsome predator’s behavior in the northwest Atlantic Ocean.
The sharks have returned to coastal New England and southern Canada in increasing numbers during recent years, sometimes leading to fatal interactions with humans it encounters who are swimming or surfing in the ocean.
Among other completed and forthcoming research the consortium plans to use hundreds of receivers to acoustically track great whites from Rhode Island to Canada in hopes of eventually creating “shark forecast maps” that will alert swimmers when shark activity along beaches is at its most intense, said Megan Winton,chief research scientist for the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy which provides the popular SHARKTIVITY app.