Certain shark species native to Long Island Sound are increasing in population, according to scientists at the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP).
DEEP fisheries biologist David Molnar said that’s based on shark sighting reports made using the agency’s new coastal shark reporting app.
“Currently, with the reporting app, where anglers, boaters, charter boat captains can report, we believe the populations of some species are increasing slowly,” Molnar said.
Those species include brown sharks, dusky sharks, and sand tiger sharks.
Molnar attributes the population increase to fisheries management practices that protect sharks, as well as the warming waters of the Long Island Sound.
“Animals, especially fish, they don’t recognize political boundaries,” Molnar said. “If Connecticut’s a great place to live and thrive, they’re gonna go there, and if it’s not, they’ll go somewhere else.”
David Cochran is senior director of fish and invertebrates at Mystic Aquarium. He said increases in shark populations on the sound is good news.
“The more abundance there are of sharks, it gives you a better picture of the overall health of the ecosystem,” Cochran said. “So when top predators are present, that means that there’s generally a healthy population of prey animals to sustain them, which builds the foundation for a healthier ecosystem.”
“The other thing they do, because they tend to go after the slower and the weaker or the sicker prey animals, they're removing those from the populations,” Cochran said, “which actually can help strengthen the genetics of those prey populations and help keep those populations sustained.”
Molnar and Cochran both said the sharks commonly seen in the waters of the sound are not cause for alarm.
“These shark species do not feed on humans, attack humans,” Molnar said. “They’re primarily fish eaters.”
Cochran agrees.
“The risk of having an impactful interaction with these animals is very low,” Cochran said. “They're not out there marauding and looking for anglers or swimmers or anything like that. They're just out there living their lives.”
He did say situational awareness is important.
“The best thing to do is just kind of be aware and be mindful of your surroundings,” he said. “If you see a shark out there, give them space.”
While white sharks, commonly referred to as great white sharks, have been spotted increasingly off the coast of Maine, Cochran said they typically don’t spend much time in Long Island Sound.
“Great whites will, or can, make their way into the sound,” Cochran said. “They generally don't stay for very long. There's not much for them to eat or to do.”
“It's not necessarily a typical sighting that you would have,” he said.
