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mako |
porbeagle |
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Welcome to NewEnglandSharks.com Links to other pages are at the bottom of each page. |
spiny dogfish squalus acanthias |
thresher |
Characterized by having no anal fin, and having a spine on front of each dorsal fin. You can't spend time on the water without encountering this small shark. Now the dogfish is a year round pest. Schools of dogfish can go on for miles. I thank spotter pilot Wayne Davis for sending me this photo. |
General Shark Information It is unlikely anyone would encounter all of the shark species listed on the home page; no matter how much time you are on the water. Some of those species are not here in many numbers. An unusual appearance of other shark species, not listed on the home page, such as a bull shark, bonnet head shark, bigeye thresher, blacktip, nurse shark, Atl. sharpnose or angel shark could occur, since their northern range on the East Coast puts them close to southern New England. The Greenland shark could also stray south enough to make it into our waters. Any info of encounters on the above mentioned species would be appreciated. - Tom There are 34 shark families. In some cases only one shark species may exist in a family, i.e. the basking shark-zebra shark- goblin shark- whale shark -megamouth shark- crocodile shark-barbelled hound shark- are the only members in their family. There are cases where some land species have interbred; such as the wolf, Canis lupus, and the dog, Canis familiarus. A lion father and a tiger mother produce an animal called a Liger. A tiger father and a lion mother produce a Tigon. Shark species can only breed amongst themselves and they share distinctive characteristics that separate them from other species in and outside of their genus. (see next paragraph) In 2011 there was a new claim--The Australian black tip shark, (Carcharhinus tilstoni) and the common black tip shark (C. limbatus) have overlapping distributions along the northern and eastern Australian coastline. There are biologists who claimed in 2011, that these two species have interbred. Some of the shark species encountered by New England boaters and fishermen. Blue sharks, Prionace glauca, They will be plentiful in August and September. They are world record size, and our most common large shark Makos, Isurus oxyrinchus, A few makos will show up in July, especially the large makos, but more are here in Aug. and September. July has produced some mako catches in Massachusetts waters where the mako has weighed in over a thousand pounds. The IGFA world record mako 1,221 lbs, was caught in Mass. The Mass. state record mako is even heavier at 1,324 lbs. Threshers, Alopias vulpinus, Small numbers north of Cape Cod, but more plentiful on the southside. Porbeagles, Lamna nasus, are here year round, but not in great numbers. Sandtigers, Carcharias taurus, made such a great comeback in the last 10 years that I gave them a page in this site. Plymouth and Duxbury Harbors and Boston Harbor have had a big increase in sandtigers. They are usually found in the shallower coastal waters, and in bays. White sharks, Carcharodon carcharias, are in our waters and making a comeback here. They are a protected species as of 1997. A least 12 white sharks were spotted off Monomoy, Cape Cod, in early September 2009,- and 5 of them were tagged. Since then a total of 34 have been tagged. Sandbar shark, Carcharhinus plumbeus, usually caught off the south facing beaches of Cape Cod, and the offshore Islands. Called by many the "brown" shark beause of its brown color. Very hard to distinguish from a dusky, Carcharhinus obscurus. The sandbar has a very large dorsal. Basking sharks, Cetorhinus maximus, are here during the summer along with the whites. |
Fishes of the Gulf of Maine (Henry B. Bigelow and William C. Schroeder, 1953) "voracious almost beyond belief, the dogfish entirely deserves its bad reputation. Not only does it harry and drive off mackerel, herring, and even fish as large as cod and haddock, but it destroys vast numbers of them. Again and again fishermen have described packs of dogs dashing among schools of mackerel, and even attacking them within the seines, biting through the net, and releasing such of the catch as escapes them. At one time or another they prey on practically all species of Gulf of Maine fish smaller than themselves, and squid are also a regular article of diet whenever they are found." |
blueshark |
Below are species encountered in New England waters. |
Above is a sandbar shark Carcharhinus plumbeus (now a protected species) They are in New England, mostly caught off the beaches on the south side of Cape Cod and the Islands. I want you to take notice of several characteristics of this sandbar species. The eyes are yellow and not black like some shark species. The brown color is why many anglers call them "brown sharks." The oversized first dorsal, that is located way up on the pectorals, is an identifying mark. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ On the back is a ridge. It looks like a seam between the dorsals. This ridge is present on some other sharks, and that group of sharks are know as "ridgeback" sharks. The tiger, Galeocerdo cuvier, has a ridge on its back, but it would be hard to mistake a tiger for any other shark species - not so with the two other ridgeback sharks in our area, the dusky and the sandbar. The dusky, Carcharhinus obscurus, and the sandbar, Carcharhinus plumbeus, look very much alike, and their teeth are similar. If the identity is narrowed down to one or the other, looking at their scales with a magnifying glass is one method of identifying them. If the dermal denticles overlap - it is a dusky. If the dermal denticles are not overlapped - it is a sandbar. People in southern New England have claimed to have caught bull sharks, Carcharhinus leucas, but when inspected, the ridge on the back indicates they were not bull sharks, but more than likely duskys or sandbars. |
Basking shark |
A blacktip, Carcharhinus limbatus, might come into our waters. There are plenty of them south of us. I believe there is a better chance of that happening than having a bull shark show up. |
Sandbar shark, Carcharhinus plumbeus. Also called the "brown shark" |
I had a conversation with a knowledgeable commercial fisherman who told me he netted a blacktip on the south side of Cape Cod. The description sounded good, and he has caught blacktips while fishing in Florida, and is familiar with the species. This photo is a Texas blacktip. |
There are 8 species of hammerheads. One of those species definitely makes it into our waters in New England - that species is the smooth hammerhead Spyrna zygaena. The experts claim the smooth hammerhead could range as far north as Nova Scotia in the summer. Still, this would be an unusual catch anywhere in New England, especially north of Cape Cod. Capt. Bill Brown caught this hammerhead and several more off Block Island, R.I. |
You could get a blacktip mixed up with a ridgeback sandbar or dusky shark. A blacktip is not a "ridgeback" shark, so there would be no ridge on it's back. |
Protected species - release unharmed Dusky, Carcharhinus obscurus - has a ridge on its back between dorsals. The dusky does not venture north of Cape Cod. Small duskys and sandbar sharks of the same size are very hard to tell apart. Both species are on the south side of Cape Cod. There are 3 additional look alike ridgeback sharks on the East Coast; the silky, bignose and night shark. But they are not seen in coastal New England. On Cape Cod's south side you only have to deal with two look alike ridgeback sharks- the dusky and sandbar sharks. The tiger is also a ridgeback shark but you cant' mistake it for another shark species. The IGFA record for a dusky is 764 lbs. In 1999 the Dusky became a protected species. Capt. Bill Brown photo of a dusky on the right |
I can't recover the original e-mail so I don't know who to credit for this great photo. - Tom |
On the south side of Cape Cod you could encounter a tiger shark. It would be unusual but they have been caught there. It would be difficult to mistake a tiger for another shark species. |
Tom Burns photo |
The Australian black tip shark (Carcharhinus tilstoni) and the common black tip shark (C. limbatus) have overlapping distributions along the northern and eastern Australian coastline. These shark species have been known to interbreed. |
This is one of the ridgeback sharks |