An ideal white shark tries to chunk a fish head being trolled although the water as researchers chum the ocean searching for sharks off the coast of Gansbaai, South Africa, in 2016.

Schalk van Zuydam/AP

cover caption

toggle caption

Schalk van Zuydam/AP

An ideal white shark tries to chunk a fish head being trolled although the water as researchers chum the ocean searching for sharks off the coast of Gansbaai, South Africa, in 2016.

Schalk van Zuydam/AP

Scientists estimate that 800 nice white sharks might be swimming within the waters off the Cape Cod, Mass., shoreline, based on a study published Thursday.

From 2015 to 2018, researchers took 137 journeys to Cape Cod and noticed 393 sharks by utilizing industrial spotter pilots and video cameras. Some sharks had been neglected of the depend as a result of movies of them weren’t crisp sufficient, they didn’t have distinct sufficient options to rule them out as duplicates or they didn’t return to the world yr after yr.

Researchers used the precise inhabitants counted and utilized a mannequin to achieve the estimate.

Sharks go to that space to hunt seals, they usually often seem essentially the most sometimes in June and July and peak in August and September, the examine says.

Researchers encountered barely extra males, which might be as a result of they’re extra simply identifiable by their reproductive organs. Most of the sharks had been additionally juveniles and “subadults,” the examine mentioned.

While nice whites are recognized to hold round Cape Cod’s waters, they’ve been tough to trace due to their elusiveness and smaller populations.