Great White Shark Caught by a Massachusetts Lobsterman
A lobsterman in Massachusetts is left in awe after he hooked a massive great white shark while fishing in Rockpart. It was 8 feet 7 inches long and weighed 362 pounds.
It turns out that this is no ordinary great white shark. The fisherman Gil Mitchell noticed a transmitter attached to its fin and decided to release the shark after playing with him a bit.
The great white shark is Cisco. He was named after a famous Nantucket brewery by the folks over at a nonprofit wildlife organization called OCEARCH, who captured him nine months ago to study its travel habits.
OCEARCH even chose Cisco as the Shark of the Month for July. They shared details about the shark on their Facebook page:
"Cisco has traveled 2731 miles since being tagged and released in Nantucket, Massachusetts 9 months ago. He is currently pinging by Rockport, Massachusetts, which is slightly north of his original tagging location. Cisco's track is revealing the one-year migration loop of an immature male white shark in the western Atlantic region."
A global positioning system (GPS) tracking device is attached to each shark captured by OCEARCH before they put them back on water. It will ping whenever its fin surfaces above water for half a minute. Such was the case with Cisco.
OCEARCH aims to preserve and protect the great white shark and has been studying them for years as they push for the project.
Cisco is not the only great white shark that was recently captured on the coast of Massachusetts. According to Associated Press, state officials working with Atlantic White Shark Conservancy also found a 13-foot white shark near Chatham.
The publication says that the increased sightings could be because the great whites are being drawn to the seal population, which appears to be increasing in the region.
