900-Pound Shark, Freya, Spotted Off Coast Of Long Island

MONTAUK, NY — A massive white shark named Freya passed by Montauk this week as she headed north.

According to Chris Fischer, founder of the not-for-profit OCEARCH research organization, Freya passed by off the coast of Montauk and is now south of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket.

Freya is 11.26 feet long and weighs 883 lbs, OCEARCH said; she pinged off Montauk Monday at 11:12 p.m.

Freya's quest, Fischer said, is fueled by her search for food. "She's all over that bunker, the menhaden," he said.

"We met Freya off of North Carolina in March. It will be exciting to see if she will spend her summer and fall in the New England area or more north in Nova Scotia," OCEARCH said on social media.

Menhaden are crucial to the survival of marine life, Fischer said: Whales, baby white sharks, the recovering striped bass population, and others feed on the bunker; menhaden are "huge for the general abundance of the whole East Coast," Fischer said.

A Montauk shark "nursery" discovered in 2016 has seen a steady increase in its population of white sharks, Fischer said. Female sharks tend to head to Montauk in the late spring and early summer to drop off their pups and then depart; right now, there are a "bunch of baby shark pups" on the South Shore that are "under the menhaden, chasing squid and mackerel around," he said.

"They live off them all summer, getting stronger to go south," he told Patch.

Two other sharks, Monomoy and Martha, have also been spotted just south of the East End area, he said Thursday.

Freya was named by Sea World, Fischer said. Her name means "noble woman," he added.

This summer, East End residents can expect to see not only the white shark pups but also two-and-three year old sharks, from 4-to 7-feet, feeding offshore. After birthing season, some mature male white sharks may also make their way up from the Carolinas and Virginia for summer feeding, moving primarily offshore to get north toward Maine, Massachusetts, and Nova Scotia, he said.

Fischer has said that the growth in the white shark population is important for commercial and recreational fisheries and "so our grandchildren can eat fresh fish in the future. All those baby white sharks are our future balance keepers," he said.

The white sharks, he said, keep seals from depleting fish stock in area waters. Even one great white shark in the water can keep seals on the beach and prevent them eating all the other types of fish in the water, he said.

Having even the one shark in the area can mean seals will eat a quarter of what they normally would, Fischer said. "Without that shark, there are hundreds of seals that can 'over-forage' and wipe out cod, mackerel and lobster," he said. "Baby white sharks are moving up the entire South Shore of Long Island" and keeping the waters balanced, he said.

How to stay safe

"People have this fear of sharks," Fischer said in a prior interview. "They look out and see a little 4- or 5-foot shark, eating something the size of menhaden or a small squid or mackerel — it's not something you need to be too worried about."

It's not until sharks are much older and about 10 to 12 feet long that they begin to target larger prey such as seals, he said.

Common sense in the water is key, Fischer said: "Don't go swimming looking like a seal," he said. "But people do that every day. They put on wetsuits, dressed up like shark food, when they are going swimming with real shark food. Those are the kinds of things you want to avoid."

Even "dressed up like shark food," most of the time, sharks can tell the difference between a human and a seal, Fischer said.

Another tip, he said, is not to go swimming if there is a good amount of activity, such as birds swooping down to feed on bait, with seals in the area. "Don't swim out in the middle of that. The food chain is happening, and if there is a large white shark in the area, it will be there, balancing the system," Fischer said. "Just think about it as if you were going for hike in the forest and you know mountain lions were tracking deer. You would probably walk in the opposite direction; you wouldn't walk into the middle of that. Humans seem not to apply the same type of logic in the ocean as we do in the forest. Once you're out into the waves, deep into the ocean, you're deep into the wilderness and anything can happen. It's not a swimming pool."

Fischer added: "Be practical, look at what's going on. Make good, safe decisions, use common sense — and enjoy the ocean."

Montauk shark nursery sparks uptick in population

Sharks have been making an appearance in East End waters in recent years.

Christopher Paparo, manager of Stony Brook Southampton's marine sciences center, said at one time, sharks were very common in area waters. "They have been heavily fished, and their numbers have dropped. Due to regulations and better environmental conditions, we have seen some species returning to where they once roamed."

Paparo said a sandbar, or brown, shark was even spotted in shallow waters off the Mattituck coast in recent years. "It should also be pointed out that these are prohibited species and even targeting them is against the law," he said.

It's not the first time a shark has been spotted in the Long Island Sound. A nearly 10-foot, 500-pound great white shark was spotted in the Long Island Sound in May 2019, then headed to the Hamptons.

According to Fischer, the shark — @GWSharkCabot — was then spotted off the coast southwest of Montauk.

The fact that a great white was found in the Long Island Sound for the first time "is a great sign," Fischer said. "It means there's a lot of life and that the water quality is good."

According to OCEARCH, which has led expeditions off Montauk to tag sharks found in a nursery in the Atlantic Ocean in recent years, in 2016 great white shark researchers discovered the first North Atlantic nursery for the fearsome predator in the waters off Montauk — explaining the recent surge in great white sharks around nearby Cape Cod.

In 2016, the leading shark research team said it suspected Long Island might be a breeding ground for great whites and launched a tagging expedition to be able to determine potential birthing sites. The OCEARCH team said it tracked nine infant great whites to the nursery, located a few miles off Montauk.

There has been a surge of great white sightings off Cape Cod in recent years — researchers say adults feed on seals around the Cape and return to Montauk, where adolescents stay until they reach adulthood at the age of 20. Great whites can live up to 70 years old; they can grow up to 25 feet long and weigh 5,000 pounds.

"This is a historical moment and the first step in revealing the great white shark pupping ground," Fischer said in a statement at the time the nursery was discovered. "It's this kind of scientific data that will help us collectively make more-informed decisions about how to protect this incredible species."

Fischer said the discovery could lead to restrictions on human activity around the nursery in an effort to protect the sharks.

But the news isn't reason to panic: Shark attacks on humans are extremely rare — the odds are about 1 in 12 million. Most shark attack victims survive; bites on humans by sharks are normally exploratory. Worldwide, 200,000 sharks are killed per day; in contrast, about 10 to 12 human lives are lost yearly as a result of shark attacks, researchers told Patch.

Sharks, experts agree, are far less of a danger to people than mankind is to sharks.

Mary Lee, the famous 16-foot, 3,400-pound great white shark, made headlines when she was found to be lurking off the Long Island coast, headed toward Fire Island, and then East Hampton.

Sadly, Mary Lee has not been seen since 2017, when she last pinged off the Jersey Shore coast.

OCEARCH, like other not-for-profits, was dealt a heavy blow due to the coronavirus. Despite the challenges, teams will continue their research.

"This work is so important to the public and to the future balance of the ocean," Fischer said.
To donate to OCEARCH, click here.