Researchers catch sharks off NY’s Hamptons, attach trackers to toothy predators

(AP) — Just off one of New York’s famed Hamptons beaches, shark researcher Greg Metzger reels in one of the day’s prize catches: a young but powerful sand tiger shark.He and another marine researcher quickly lasso the tail of the sharp-toothed female to the side of the boat and hold it steady as they take tissue samples and work to attach small data collection devices. Metzger marvels as the shark’s thick, rugged skin snaps a surgical-grade scalpel.“It’s no surprise that they’ve been around since prehistoric times and they’re still going strong,” Metzger says as he stitches up the incision and sends it along its way.Metzger and other researchers are catching, tagging and releasing a wide range of sharks as they seek to understand the local population and shed more light on one of the world’s few confirmed great white shark nurseries, where masses of young predators spend their first vulnerable years feeding and growing. Other white shark nurseries recognized globally are in the coastal waters off California, Mexico and Australia.“It’s that initial fear of sharks that captures people’s imagination,” said Metzger, who also teaches marine science at Southampton High School.

“Hopefully, through educational opportunities like today, we’ll be able to show that these sharks are far from mindless eating machines.”Warmer waters are drawing tropical sharks northThe researchers attach different types of tags. One relays location by sending an acoustic signal that can be detected by monitoring receivers set up along the coast. Another measures depth and water temperature for several months, then pops off.The data illustrates how sharks can cover vast distances in a year, said Bradley Peterson, the Stony Brook University marine scientist working with Metzger this particular day.“Their tags are being detected in North Carolina and Georgia and Florida and the Gulf of Mexico, and then they’ll be back here the following year,” he said.

“So a lot of them are coming up here to get themselves fueled up and fattened up.”The research also suggests more varied species of sharks are coming up from more tropical southern waters during the summer months, as the waters off Long Island's coast and elsewhere are warming, likely due to climate change, said Frank Quevedo, executive director at the South Fork Natural History Museum and Nature Center, which is coordinatin… He and another marine researcher quickly lasso the tail of the sharp-toothed female to the side of the boat and hold it steady as they take tissue samples and work to attach small data collection devices. “It’s no surprise that they’ve been around since prehistoric times and they’re still going strong,” Metzger says as he stitches up the incision and sends it along its way.

Metzger and other researchers are catching, tagging and releasing a wide range of sharks as they seek to understand the local population and shed more light on one of the world’s few confirmed great white shark nurseries, where masses of young predators spend their first vulnerable years feeding and growing. “It’s that initial fear of sharks that captures people’s imagination,” said Metzger, who also teaches marine science at Southampton High School. The data illustrates how sharks can cover vast distances in a year, said Bradley Peterson, the Stony Brook University marine scientist working with Metzger this particular day.

“Their tags are being detected in North Carolina and Georgia and Florida and the Gulf of Mexico, and then they’ll be back here the following year,” he said.