Two Massachusetts brothers landed an unexpected catch during a shark fishing trip off Cape Cod, reeling in a tropical species known for eating nearly anything it can swallow.
Nate Rouette and his brother Nelson, longtime sport fishermen, released a juvenile tiger shark in late July after catching it from a beach in Falmouth, Massachusetts. The five-foot shark typically inhabits warmer southern waters such as the Caribbean Sea. Scientists said its presence off New England points to warming seas driven by climate change.
The brothers described the late-night catch as a thrill after hours of pursuing far more common brown sharks.
“And I saw those horizontal lines, indicating it was a tiger shark, which was super cool,” said Nate, the social media manager for On The Water magazine. “Immediately I started yelling to my brother, ‘It’s a tiger, it’s a tiger shark!’ And he was in disbelief.”
The young specimen belongs to a species that can grow to more than 15 feet (4.6 meters) and weigh up to 1,400 pounds (635 kilograms). Tiger sharks consume a wide variety of marine life, including fish, crustaceans and birds, and are known for ingesting man-made objects such as old license plates and shoes that later turn up in their stomachs. Adults pose a greater danger to humans than most shark species, though unprovoked fatal bites remain rare.
Juvenile tiger sharks have surfaced more frequently in northern waters in recent years, according to John Chisholm, an adjunct scientist at the New England Aquarium’s Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life in Boston. Chisholm said rising ocean temperatures appear to have made the Atlantic off New England more hospitable to the species.
Young tiger sharks have historically been less common than adults in northern waters, making the Rouette brothers’ catch even more unusual, Chisholm said.
“Maybe they are coming up here because conditions are right. There’s food, there’s warm waters,” he said. “Maybe it’s becoming a nursery — that’s one of the issues that we will investigate.”
Tiger sharks are among many marine species trending northward as seas warm, and other sharks have followed the same pattern, scientists said. Sightings of great whites off Cape Cod have grown more frequent, with the large predators also spotted off New Hampshire and Maine. Researchers have linked the shift in great white activity to factors including a higher abundance of seals, which the sharks prey upon.
Other sea creatures, including black sea bass, also appear to be shifting north as ocean temperatures climb.
For the Rouette brothers, the encounter produced a memory they will not soon forget. Nate said the discovery served as a reminder of broader changes unfolding off the coast.
“People are definitely seeing more species that indicate that,” Nate said.