iStockphoto / UpdogDesigns/Howard Chen
tiger shark caught in Cape Cod
Cape Cod, Massachusetts offers an array of fishing opportunities for anglers in the Summer from striped bass and bluefin tuna to various shark species. The most common shark species caught (and seen) in Cape Cod include sandbar sharks, porbeagles, spiny and smooth dogfish, and of course, great white sharks.
Notably missing from that list are tiger sharks, a species that are found throughout warm tropical waters across the globe but rarely seen in the typically frigid Northern Atlantic waters. In the extremely rare occurrences when tiger sharks are seen/caught in Cape Cod they are usually fully grown specimens. These two brothers, however, caught a juvenile tiger shark which has led to a great deal of speculation.
Rare Juvenile Tiger Shark Caught In Cape Cod
Nate Rouette, the social media manager of OnTheWater Magazine, was shark fishing in Cape Cod with his brother Nelson. After only catching brown sharks for hours they reeled in a juvenile tiger shark with the unmistakable stripes.
Tiger Sharks spend most of their lives in water temperatures ranging from 72°F to 82°F (22°C to 28°C). The average water temperature around Cape Cod in July ranges from 63°F to 69°F (17°C to 21°C), well below the preferred range of this species. But that didn’t deter this shark from finding its way there!
Here is Nate Rouette releasing the 5′ juvenile tiger shark from the beach in Cape Cod:
Rouette spoke with the AP about this unexpected catch, saying “I saw those horizontal lines, indicating it was a tiger shark, which was super cool. Immediately I started yelling to my brother, ‘It’s a tiger, it’s a tiger shark!’ And he was in disbelief.” Nelson Rouette also spoke with NBC News about the rare Cape Cod tiger shark catch:
Rare things happen in Cape Cod. Three Summers ago an angler caught a tarpon off the beach, another fish that thrives in warm water. Here in SW Florida, peak tarpon fishing season is the month of June when waters are steamy.
So catching one tiger shark could be chalked up to a once-in-a-blue-moon event. But then, according to the report in OnTheWater, another tiger shark was spotted just days later in the area eating a sea turtle. A week or so later, a massive tiger shark was caught off the beach down in New Jersey:
That is believed to be one of it not the largest shark ever caught from a beach on the Jersey Shore. A shark like that is more suited to thriving in the cooler Northern Atlantic waters than a juvenile tiger shark. The presence of the juvenile tiger shark opens up the discussion of whether there is potentially a nursery where these tropical sharks are born and raised.
Is this a sign that warming waters is enabling this species of shark to push further north? That is one theory posited by the AP who spoke with John Chisholm, adjunct scientist at the New England Aquarium’s Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life in Boston.
Chisholm told them “maybe they are coming up here because conditions are right. There’s food, there’s warm waters. Maybe it’s becoming a nursery — that’s one of the issues that we will investigate.”
It is impossible to know for certain what is drawing these sharks to Cape Cod and the Northern Atlantic Ocean but evidence is showing they are there, now more research is needed to begin to understand their population numbers and how they could impact the local ecology.