The resurgence of great white sharks off Cape Cod is fascinating to both scientists and conservationists. Once in serious decline, these apex predators have made a notable comeback since being granted federal protection in 1997. Researchers like Dr. Greg Scomal use innovative techniques and technology, such as electronic tagging, to track and study these sharks, which helps in understanding their behavior and population dynamics in regions like Cape Cod and beyond, providing valuable insights into the ecosystem.

The recovery of the great white shark population, while viewed as a conservation success, presents challenges and fears for beachgoers. Visitors to Cape Cod frequently encounter beach closures and shark sightings. Efforts are being made by research groups, such as the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy, to educate the public and mitigate fears, despite the primal fear of sharks that people inherently possess. The probability of a shark attack remains incredibly low, but community discussions continue to weigh conservation success against public safety concerns.

Main takeaways from the video:

Please remember to turn on the CC button to view the subtitles.

Key Vocabularies and Common Phrases:

1. resurgence [rɪˈsɜːrdʒəns] - (noun) - A renewal or revival of something that was previously diminished or inactive. - Synonyms: (revival, renewal, comeback)

The resurgence of great white sharks off Cape Cod is fascinating to both scientists and conservationists.

2. conservationists [ˌkɒn.səˈveɪ.ʃən.ɪsts] - (noun) - People who actively work to protect and preserve the natural environment. - Synonyms: (environmentalists, preservationists, ecologists)

White sharks were granted federal protection in 1997 and in the years since have made a comeback that has delighted conservationists.

3. primal [ˈpraɪ.məl] - (adjective) - Relating to an early stage in evolutionary development; basic or fundamental. - Synonyms: (basic, fundamental, primary)

But there's not much more I can say because that fear is primal.

4. ecological [ˌiː.kəˈlɒdʒɪk(ə)l] - (adjective) - Relating to the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment. - Synonyms: (environmental, bioecological, natural)

Despite their ecological importance, white sharks pose a perceived threat.

5. apex predator [ˈeɪ.pɛks ˈprɛdətər] - (noun) - An animal at the top of the food chain without any natural predators. - Synonyms: (top predator, alpha predator, dominant predator)

Once in serious decline, these apex predators have made a notable comeback.

6. mitigate [ˈmɪt.ɪˌgeɪt] - (verb) - To make something less severe or serious. - Synonyms: (alleviate, lessen, reduce)

Efforts are being made by research groups, such as the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy, to educate the public and mitigate fears.

7. ping [pɪŋ] - (noun) - A brief, high-pitched sound; in technological context, a signal or communication check. - Synonyms: (signal, beep, tone)

The tag constantly emits a ping that is picked up when the shark swims close to acoustic receivers.

8. expedition [ˌeks.pəˈdɪʃ.ən] - (noun) - A journey or voyage undertaken for a specific purpose, often scientific or exploratory. - Synonyms: (journey, voyage, quest)

We needed a bigger boat for a very different shark tagging expedition.

9. conservation [ˌkɒn.səˈveɪ.ʃən] - (noun) - The action of conserving something, especially the natural environment, wildlife, or resources. - Synonyms: (protection, preservation, safeguarding)

In one of the great success stories in conservation, the humpback is making a comeback.

10. intricacies [ˈɪn.trɪ.kə.siz] - (noun) - Complex details or aspects of something. - Synonyms: (complexities, subtleties, specifics)

The video delves into the intricacies of shark research.

Great White Sharks, Whales, Ocean Floor Metals, Ocean Plastic Plague - 60 Minutes Full Episodes

The book and movie jaws introduced us to the great white shark more than 40 years ago and scared us out of our wits. Much of the film was shot in the waters off Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The irony is that when it came out in the mid 1970s, there were very few white sharks around Cape Cod. The species was in the midst of a serious decline and the movie made it worse, with fishermen hunting the few great whites that there were. White sharks were granted federal protection in 1997 and in the years since have made a comeback that has delighted conservationists and frightened swimmers and surfers. On Cape Cod this summer, shark sightings and beach closings were about as common as lobster rolls. As we saw for ourselves, the Atlantic great white shark is back.

Look at this fish. Look at this fish. Yeah, look at this fish. On a Tuesday in mid September. We are with Doctor Greg Scomal, chief shark scientist for the Massachusetts Department of Marine Fisheries, following an eleven foot white shark swimming just feet off the beach near Truro on Cape Cod. And if you're standing there, you don't know that shark. I have no idea. You don't know that shark's here. No idea. She's like 10ft offshore. Yeah, it's very close now. White sharks are so close to shore because that's where their favorite food is, gray seals, thousands of which now call Cape Cod home. This is the restaurant right here. These sharks have found the restaurant and they're waiting for the doors to open, you know, and when those seals begin to leave the beach, you know, it's dinner time. It's dinner time.

Schoml and his team from the Atlantic White shark Conservancy are trying to attach electronic tracking tags to as many sharks as they can, nearly 200 so far. The way they do it is fascinating. Pilot Wayne Davis locates sharks from his spotter plane, then guides boat captain John King onto them. Yeah, use a little gas, John. He's right on the shoal. It's about as good as it's going to get. Standing on a pulpit on the bow of a small boat, Greg scomal wields a long pole that has a dart and a tag at the end of. Wait, wait. There, done. You got him tagged. That was it. There he goes. Beautiful. Beautiful placement, Greg. Yeah. Thank you, John. Nice work. You can see where it was. Yeah, you can see it right at the base of the door. So see it? Yeah, yeah. Now we're gonna learn about that fish.

For the next 910 years, they will track the fish because the tag constantly emits a ping that is picked up when the shark swims close to acoustic receivers attached to buoys. And how many of these do you have up and down the coast? We have over 100 out all over Massachusetts. And that's just you? Other people have others? Yes. So we can actually track the movements of our white sharks when they leave here. The tags also help Schoml and his research colleague Megan Winton figure out just how many sharks there are and have established that Cape Cod is now one of the world's white shark hotspots. They regularly haul buoys out of the water and download data from them to a tablet that displays each time a tagged shark swims by.

Lots of white shark detections. This tells them a lot about individuals. They have confirmed that they are loners and that the same one will often come back to precisely the same hunting ground year after year. A white shark seemed to be hunting Greg Scomal last year when it came up. Jaws open right under the pulpit. Whoa. Holy crap. He opened his mouth right at my feet. That shook him up for a bit. But he insists it shouldn't shake up the public.

You know, all I can tell them is that the probability of them being bitten is incredibly low. But there's not much more I can say because that fear is primal. I think that fear is primal. I think it's innate. I think it's in them. It's in us. It's in all of us.

Five days after our day on the water off Cape Cod, we needed a bigger boat for a very different shark tagging expedition 600 miles to the northeast, just off Hay island in Nova Scotia. Good morning. Good morning. How are you? We boarded a 125 foot research ship called O Search, which has been tagging Atlantic white sharks from Florida to Canada since 2012. Founder Chris Fisher invited us to join the first day of his 2019 Nova Scotia expedition. And we come up here. We've been here 24 hours. We've seen two or three sharks and no one ever even knew to come look here.

Before O Search launches a team on a small boat to hook white sharks, much as fishermen would, using long lines, bait and floats to keep them near the surface. Looked in the corner of the mouth, squared away. Everything's green out here. O Search is a converted alaskan crab boat equipped with a platform that's lowered into the water off one side. As the small boat tows the shark alongside, O Search fishing master Brett McBride leaps onto the submerged platform into water that's 49 degrees. With the line in his hand, he guides an 1100 pound male white shark onto the cradle. Whoa. Whoa. Look at that, the platform is raised out of the water, effectively beaching the shark.

It offers no resistance. Worn out after being hooked and towed for nearly an hour, McBride gets right in its face to insert a hose between its giant jaws, keeping clean seawater. I'm flowing over its gills. I'm making sure it's getting good oxygen. A team member starts a clock. They don't want to keep the shark out of the water for more than 15 minutes. And O search's chief scientist, doctor Robert Hooter, gives me an opportunity I'm not quite sure I want. So, Bill, just go ahead and take your time to feel how beautiful that is. Oh my God, how smooth. Then go this way.

Rub your hand the other way and you feel. It's kind of bumpy. My God. The O search team swarms the shark, drawing blood and tissue samples, picking off parasites to be analyzed and measuring its girth and lengthen. 371 total. That's 371 cm, or 12ft two inches. The biggest Atlantic great white they've caught was a 16 foot female who weighed 3500 pounds. As Chris Fisher measures this one, Bob Heuter inserts an acoustic tag like the one Greg scomal attaches with a dart. That doesn't harm the shark. No, it's just, it floats in the body cavity.

Let's roll the shark. Everybody step back. After the shark is rolled onto its belly, Chris Fisher drills through the dorsal fin. He insists it's no more painful than piercing an ear. He's attaching the tag that really sets o search apart. In the world of white shark tracking, the spot tag allows us to track this animal in real time for up to five years. The spot tag will send a signal to a satellite each time this shark's dorsal fin comes above the surface of the water. O search has put nearly 50 of them on atlantic white sharks and displays their tracks on its website.

And that's how you learn not only where they are, but what they're doing, where they are, which is what you need to know to manage, right? Where's the mating? Where's the birthing? Where's the foraging? Where's the gestating? While some scientists criticize the o search techniques as too invasive, they are gathering a lot of data. 17 different research projects will get samples and information from a single shark. It doesn't take much to make everybody happy. Still, there are a lot of unknowns. No white shark has ever been kept in captivity. And no one has ever seen them or give birth anywhere.

But there are also discoveries the O search team has confirmed that the waters off Long island are an important nursery for baby wights like these, called pups. Did you get them? Yeah, got them. And back on Cape Cod, acoustic tags are teaching Greg Scomal about just how far adult sharks travel. So what's the most interesting thing you have learned about them? We now know, based on the tagging work we've done the last ten years, is that when they leave Cape Cod, they go down to Florida and they spend the time in the Gulf of Mexico, and they overwinter in these southern climates.

But then some of these sharks move out into the open Atlantic Ocean, and when they're out in the middle of the Atlantic, they dive down to depths as great as 3000ft every day. And there's not a scientist on earth that can tell you why they do that. Scientists have learned how long lived they are. White sharks we now know live over 70 years. 70 years? 70 years. They don't start hunting seals until their late teens. But when they do. Watch out. In this footage Greg scomal shot, you see a seal leap out of the water with a shark right on its tail.

Have you ever seen that before? Here, the shark catches a seal and the ocean water explodes in blood red in an instant. The shark then swims away with half a seal in its jaws. Seals have been protected by federal law since 1972, and some 25,000 now live near Cape Cod. More seals means more sharks, and that's what worries the swimmers and surfers sharing the water with them. This photo was taken at the Cape barely a week ago. Great white sharks very rarely attack people. The one that killed a swimmer named Arthur Medici just off this beach last September was the first fatal attack on Cape Cod since 1936.

But it triggered a fear of attacks that can hardly be measured. Scary warning signs on every beach stop bleed kits at lifeguard stands, a phone app called Sharktivity that reports sightings in real time, with local news doing much the same, and community meetings packed with frightened citizens. No sharks or seals are worth a young man's life. They're just not. You're the scientist, but you also live here and, you know, people are afraid. We can't bury our heads in the sand when it comes to shark attacks. And so that's in my face every day now. And then it always falls back on, you know, the question of, well, what do you tell your kids to do? You know, what do you tell your kids to do? You know, I tell my kids, don't go out past waist deep.

That's chilling advice for swimmers. For surfers and for the Cape Cod chamber of Commerce. I mean, we basically got to undo everything jaws did. I mean, we got half the people on the eastern seaboard terrified about something that almost never happens. I saw the teeth on this character here. People who are swimming nearby should not be afraid of that. No, they're clever. Like, even though we dress up like they're food and try to fool them, they very rarely get fooled. What do you mean, dress up like they're food? You ever seen what someone in a wetsuit looks like compared to a seal? He's got a point. When this white shark's 15 minutes on the osurge platform ran out, we were ordered off.

That was amazing. They gave him a name, Sydney, for the nearest Nova Scotia town, and began lowering him back into the water. And what you guys have done to it, this does not harm or hurt the shark at all? No, because we're monitoring the stress of the animal throughout. After a couple of minutes, he perked up, especially when he noticed the o search photographer in the water around the corner. Finally, with fishmaster Brett McBride helping steer him by the tail, off went Sidney. There he goes. Do your thing. Good luck, old boy.

Wildlife Conservation, Marine Biology, Sharks, Science, Education, Technology, 60 Minutes