Expedition Cape Cod September 2012
9/6/12
Chris Fischer here, expedition leader of the OCEARCH, and we are off Chatham in Cape Cod preparing to capture Jaws with two of America’s greatest scientists; Dr. Greg Skomal of the state of Massachusetts and Dr. Bob Hueter from Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota. We left New Bedford this morning and the people there were amazing during our preparations. We’re grateful and have a little better sea state than we expected so tomorrow morning it begins right here on the OCEARCH. We will solve the puzzle of jaws.
9/7/12
It’s September 7th, day one. We are four miles off Chatham, Cape Cod, chumming the waters for White Sharks. We have both the Contender and OCEARCH fishing this morning.Everything’s in order we’re just waiting for a shark to show up. We have Dr. Skomal and Dr. Hueter on board and the tags are ready. Both crews are anticipating a good day ahead and now we just need a shark.
9/8/12
We woke up today, September 8thoff Chatham after an unlucky day of no sharks. The weather had come up so we were unable to fish today. We ran around and checked all of our baits and found that the indicator baits had been eaten off of the cooler to the North. There were no signs of bites on either of the indicator baits to the East or the South. The weather continually grew worse so we were unable to work regardless. We made the call to pick up our gear and are now heading to New Bedford. Hurricane Leslie is heading up to Bermuda and it’s getting ready to throw a big swell at us off Chatham so we are taking safe harbor for the next few days, September 9th and 10th.
9/11/12
September 11th, we started off this morning in New Bedford at the dock with a moment of silence for the victims of the attack in New York, 9/11. I could tell it struck home on the OCEARCH. We then headed outside of Chatham with hopes of arrivingby this evening. At this rate we should be set up by dark and plan to set a perimeter of chum and baits around the ship. The weather was initially rough when we arrived but then dropped as it came into the evening and looked like it was setting up nicely for September 12th.
9/12/12
This is the expedition log for September 12th. We arrived late last night here on the spot off Cape Cod about 3.1 miles off shore. After all of our baits were set in the water, the weather laid down nice. Leslie has passed and moved towards the Northeast. After a good night’s sleep, we woke this morning and felt fishy. The current is not as high as it was, which is better for fishing. We have a much bigger perimeter of chum set up around us to the South off Monomoy, one on the wreck to the East and another one up north right off Chatham Harbor. The airplane was up today and saw one shark just inside us within a couple miles, which I think, is hope. It’s a struggle not to be able to go and fish on the beach where we all have a natural inclination to go. The good weather should go for another several days and I think that’s going to be the key here. We are sticking it out and hoping that eventually one swims through our chum slick.
9/13/12
Explorer’s log for September 13th, 2012: Today we worked hard from dark in the morning until dark at night. About two hours before dark, we slid down to the cooler to the south of us a few miles offshore and came across a 12-foot shark. It had one of the acoustic tags in it but the shark wouldn’t take bait. It kept picking up the blubber without taking the hook. It repeatedly spit the hook. The shark was around for about an hour and then finally it disappeared when a larger shark moved in, a female. That shark was with us for about another hour constantly biting on the corners of the boat and the Yamaha outboards.Strangely, this shark wouldn’t take bait either. Finally, when it came up to bite the corner of the boat Capt. Brett laid a hook right in the corner of it’s mouth and we were able to hook it up and land what we call Genie Clark. She’s the first Atlantic Great White Shark in history to be spot tagged and tagged with an accelerometer. We were also fortunate enough to get two blood samples along with parasite samples. History was made! We are solving the puzzle of Jaws. She is maybe the most important fish we have ever caught in our lives.
9/14/12
This is the expedition log for September 14th, 2012. It’s my little girl’s 8th birthday party today. It’s the third year in a row I’ve had an expedition and missed her birthday. Today was a day off Chatham where it wasn’t as active as it was yesterday. We were down at the cooler three miles south of the ship most of the day and saw very little life down there, even with great weather and a bit of wind that came up midday. The most exciting development of today is for the first time in history an accelerometer was retrieved by Dr. Nick Whitney of MOTE Laboratory. It popped off our White Shark Genie that was released last night. Also, Genie pinged in today about 40 miles away from where we tagged her, which is always great to get that first ping. You just never know until a shark is up and pinging in that she is OK. Everyone was relieved to not only get the ping from Genie but to run 40 miles and pick up that accelerometer. So, for the first time in history Dr. Nick Whitney at MOTE Marine Laboratory has the capacity to understand the impact of our tagging for the first 24 hours after the release of one of our Great White Sharks. It is truly ground breaking science and another historic moment.
9/15/12
It was a great day today. We had the Turner family on the ship. We had Carl and Amy Kuehner on the ship from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and it was an amazing morning. We spotted a white shark predation on a seal. We actually saw the shark explode on the seal followed by a large pool of blood. It rolled up on a 60-100 lb. carcass of a seal that was bleeding out and witnessed about a 13 ½ foot very fat robust shark come up and take that entire piece of seal in one bite and then bug out. We were unable to hook a fish today even with continued great weather. We hope the calm weather window holds out for another two days. It was nice to get Genie a couple days ago but the crew is beginning to get a little bit antsy and they’re ready for another shark.
9/16/12
We started the morning at grey light on the spot and we did see a little activity around. There were some boats around that claimed they saw some large fish thrashing in the water but we never positively identified anything as a Great White Shark. This is the most difficult place we have ever worked by far as there are not a lot of sharks here. Compared to past expeditions, our efforts are not matching results at all. This is the fewest amount of sharks we have ever seen. It’s very difficult trying to keep everyone positive and focused on hooking one more. We had a spotter plane today and it luckily spotted a shark. We ran to the spotter plane as soon as we got final word but by then the shark had led us too far inside where we were uncomfortable working. The plane spotted that shark again a 2nd time as it had moved up to the northwest. The shark had actually swum into the sound, which I think is somewhat unusual from what Greg has seen in the past.
It’s exciting to see Genie continue to ping in on the tracker. She has moved towards Martha’s Vineyard and we’re hoping she’ll come back up to Cape Cod to visit before she settles in her migratory route. We are trying to make sure we grind it out for one more day as our weather window may be closing tomorrow or Monday night at latest.
9/17/12
This is the expedition log for September 17th, a Monday. We labored all day today on the OCEARCH and on the Contender, moving and working hard. We’re frustrated with 7 or 8 days of heavy chumming off the ship only to have no sharksin the area. The only opportunity we’ve had was several days ago now. Suddenly, in the last hour of light we got a call from the ship confirming that a White Shark was behind the OCEARCH. We ran about 5 or 6 miles to get there in time. The shark was fully mature. We couldn’t immediately tell if it was a male or female. It had a half moon bit out of its dorsal fin but it was still capable of holding a spot tag so we decided to try and bait the shark. The shark was very sketchy. It wouldn’t pick up any bait and it kept circling the boat. Finally, it started to get a little bit excited and starting biting at the Yamaha outboards and biting at the back corners of the boat but again it would not pick up any hooked bait. So we took a piece of bait and I started thrashing it in the water as hard as I could. I got a lot of oil to come out of it and the shark came up to it. I then left the bait and it began to sink so the shark came up to eat it. As the shark did so, I grabbed the bait again and pulled it out of the way so Captain Brett could put a hook inside of the White Shark’s mouth. He successfully put the hook in the corner of the mouth.
We’ve now caught and landed, tagged, and released two sharks without getting either shark to bite hooked bait. When we were battling the shark, we got two buoys on the face of the shark. It was a long walk up current to get into position to even begin the buoy work. Once we got above the ship, the current was ripping at about 2 ½-3 knots. We were able to get the buoys on the shark but the shark rolled and chewed off one of the buoys. We attempted to swing the shark back to the ship with one buoy but when we approached the ship, the shark sank out of sight. One buoy was not enough to hold this fish high enough in the water to get it into the cradle.
We aborted the first attempt because the buoy could not hold the shark high enough. The men walked up the port side of the Contender and Brett was able to clip a 2nd buoy on the top eye of the chain. At that point we had two buoys in line and we were able to swing back around and attempt to enter the cradle for a 2nd time. When we were coming up into the cradle a 2nd time, again, the shark made a big move and tried to sink out but now we had two buoys on it’s head instead of one. They were able to pop the shark’s head back up and we then stalled in the current and walked the Contender in front of the cradle and actually pulled the shark into the cradle. We were battling the current up the starboard side of the ship almost the whole way to the bow. Todd and Jody’s hands were being crushed all while Brett was on the outside wall of the cradle with the cable running underneath his legs. We didn’t know if he was going to have to jump out or jump into the cradle because the current was so strong. He didn’t want to get swept out of cradle so we stalled in front of the cradle and the shark came in line with the front of the boat.We drove forward as aggressively as we could, towing the shark up into the cradle without crushing Jody’s hands while trying not to hit the ship. We got the shark into the cradle and once we did it was apparent that it was a massive female Great White Shark. It was the most brutal battle we had ever had.
Todd Goggins, Brett McBride, Jody Whitworth were true warriors in the midst of a modern day battle with an Ocean giant in the toughest of environments we have ever had to work. We were able to land the shark, get the accelerometer and spot tag on the shark and collect parasites. We were unable to get a blood sample due to the strength of the current. It was too strong to attempt to roll the shark in the water so we aborted the blood work and then lowered the shark into the water. Before I let her go, I named her Mary Lee after my mother.My parents have done so much for me and I am truly grateful. I have been waiting for a special shark to name after her and this truly was the most historic and legendary fish we have ever captured. It has set the tone for Cape Cod. It has been a brutal experience in a very difficult environment with sharks that didn’t want to bite but we were still able to capture two mature females regardless and let them go alive. It’s just a historic moment and the most legendary fish I have ever been a part of.
Closing Flag Ceremony
I just want to thank youall (crew) for everything you have given all these years. This particular trip has been the most historic and I think relevant expedition we have ever had in the home of Jaws, bringing science, exploration, and new research back to America, right here at home in the Northeast. I want to thank you. I want to thank Dr. Skomal and his colleagues for the trust that they gave and it’s a privilege to be able to help you to come in and make a leap forward in your understandings so we can look after the future of our resources. We’re grateful for that trust and we take that seriously. It’s an honor to be able to assist you in the endeavor. We now officially end Expedition Cape Cod here on the OCEARCH. Thank you all, I love you like family.