A Massachusetts fisherman has hooked one of the world’s most dangerous sharks just yards from shore – just as a 14-foot, 1,600-pound great white circles nearby waters, stoking fresh fears along the East Coast’s most iconic summer playground.
The shocking catch, a juvenile tiger shark landed off Mashpee, comes as scientists warn of a surge in aggressive, warm-water predators migrating north due to rapidly rising ocean temperatures.
Hans Brings was casting lines at Popponesset Beach, along the Cape’s southern edge, when he made the alarming catch just feet from shore.
At just four-feet long, the tiger shark is renowned for its aggressive behavior and is second only to the great white in recorded attacks on humans.
The unsettling encounter came just days after a satellite ping revealed the largest great white shark ever tagged in the Atlantic, nicknamed ‘Contender’, cruising just 30 miles off the coast of Nantucket, less than 100 miles from Boston.
Brings released the animal back into the sea, but scientists say it’s part of a growing trend that’s impossible to ignore.
‘It’s another warm-water species that’s taking advantage of the warming waters and coming north,’ said scientist at the New England Aquarium John Chisholm to the Boston Herald.
‘Now, we’re getting little ones like this one every year. We’ve been seeing more and more of them.’
Hans Brings a juvenile tiger shark off Mashpee, Massachusetts on Cape Cod
Hans Brings was casting lines at Popponesset Beach, along the Cape’s southern edge, when he made the alarming catch just feet from shore
The catch comes days after a colossal great white shark was tracked swimming alarmingly close to one of America’s top summer vacation spots
The historic catch is not a one-off event. Marine experts have been sounding the alarm for years: as climate change warms Atlantic waters, tiger sharks, hammerheads, and even bull sharks, all tropical and subtropical predators, are extending their range northward.
‘This is now within their comfort zone,’ Chisholm explained.
Tiger sharks, often called ‘garbage cans of the sea’ due to their varied and unpredictable diets, can grow large enough to devour seals, a key food source also favored by the great white shark.
Indeed, a 14-foot, 1,653-pound great white shark was recently detected just 30 miles off the coast of Nantucket, swimming alarmingly close to the Cape.
The massive apex predator, nicknamed ‘Contender’ by researchers, is believed to be about 32 years old and was first tagged off the Florida-Georgia border earlier this year.
Since then, it has pinged more than 40 times as it made a 1,000-mile journey up the East Coast with its dorsal fin breaking the surface from Vero Beach to Cape Hatteras to the cooler waters near Massachusetts, prime territory for seals.
Although nothing like the 25-foot movie monster from Jaws, filmed just across the water on Martha’s Vineyard, Contender is the largest great white ever tagged in the Atlantic.
‘The largest white sharks that have been reliably measured are right around 20 feet, and any larger than this is likely impossible,’ said Nick Whitney, PhD, senior scientist at the New England Aquarium to USA Today.
The 14-foot, 1,653-pound apex predator nicknamed ‘Contender’ was only recently detected off the coast of Nantucket, Massachusetts
Hans Brings has been catching fish off Cape Cod for years. Here he is with a catch from 2021
‘People need to take precautions when they go into the water,’ Chisholm warned. ‘We know sharks are here, and you’re swimming in a shark habitat, so you have to be aware.
‘They’re not targeting humans,’ he reassured. ‘It’s usually an accident when they bite somebody, but unfortunately one bite can hit an artery and you can have a loss of life.’
Contender’s path has sparked unease in local communities, particularly given the shark’s proximity to Nantucket, Cape Cod, and Boston, packed with beachgoers throughout the summer.
Marine biologist Andriana Fragola, 31, told DailyMail.com that beachgoers need to understand how to respond if they encounter a shark.
‘The best thing to do is just to remain calm,’ she advised. ‘If you do want to get out of the water, just slowly kind of back out of it – that way you can keep an eye on the shark while getting out.’
Contender is the largest shark ever tracked in the Atlantic. Pictured: Lifeguard Seamus Roche on Coast Guard Beach keeps a lookout
‘Any type of screaming and splashing… it’s definitely going to make them more interested in pursuing you or just checking you out.’
If a shark is nearby, ‘eye contact is key,’ she added. ‘You want to look like a predator… show the shark that you see it.
‘And then if the shark ever continued to approach you… you could push down on the top of the head and push it away from you. That’s like last-case scenario.’
Chisholm noted that larger tiger sharks, like the one caught this week, may soon begin feasting on the Cape’s abundant seal colonies. ‘They’re very opportunistic when it comes to prey,’ he said.
