The first great white shark sighting of the season has been confirmed off the coast of Massachusetts.
A witness noticed a pool of blood Sunday in waters off the western end of Nantucket, Massachusetts, according to the New England Aquarium.
A seal was then seen swimming toward the beach with the shark following, the aquarium says.
John Chisholm, an adjunct scientist at the aquarium, later examined photos of the seal’s wounds and confirmed that the bite came from a white shark.
“This is the time of year when we like to remind people to be ‘shark smart’ as white sharks return to the inshore waters of New England, where they’ll hunt seals and other prey through the summer and into the fall,” Chisholm said in a statement.
“Shark smart” means looking out for sharks in shallow waters, avoiding areas where seals or visible schools of fish are present and staying close to the shore in case of an emergency, the aquarium says.
Across New England, shark populations have been growing alongside booming seal populations, as NPR has reported.
Despite Hollywood portrayals, shark attacks are exceedingly rare. A person is more likely to be struck by lightning or attacked by a bear than bitten by a shark, according to The New York Times.
Still, attacks do occur. In 2020, a swimmer was killed by a white shark off the coast of Maine, in what officials described at the time as the “only confirmed fatality in Maine waters from a shark attack.”
Another man died off the coast of Massachusetts in 2018 in what experts say was the first fatal shark attack there in more than 80 years, according to CNN.
