BOOTHBAY HARBOR, Maine — Thursday marks three years since the state's first and only fatal shark attack.
Since that deadly encounter off the shore on Bailey Island, state marine scientists have stepped up monitoring sharks along Maine's coast.
Matt Davis, a marine resource scientist for the Department of Marine Resources, said 60 white sharks have been tracked in the Gulf of Maine since the department started monitoring them in August 2020.
The department and other academic resources are monitoring sharks in the gulf using acoustic transmitters and receivers.
Davis said the two areas which have seen the most shark activity are Ragged Island, just east of Bailey Island, and Hermit Island. Davis said those two spots have seen at least 30 different white sharks.
Researchers at the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy and the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries have been tagging white sharks with transmitters for the past decade, according to Davis. Davis said there are 250 tagged sharks in our region.
"While they may be scary to a lot of people and somewhat mysterious even to scientists at times, they play this really important role in the conservation of our ecosystems," Davis said.
Eight known shark species live in the Gulf of Maine including: white, porbeagle, blue, shortfin mako sharks, thresher, basking, spiny dogfish, and sand tiger.
While Maine researchers haven't tagged any white sharks yet, the department has tagged other shark species like blue and porbeagle, Davis said.
John Chisholm, an adjunct scientist at the New England Aquarium, vets shark sightings on the Sharktivity App developed by the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy.
"The more sharks we tag, the more we see where they go when they go, where they occur," Chisholm said. "You know, it's eye-opening for a lot of people."
Overall, peak shark activity occurs from mid-August through October due to the water temperature decreasing, Chisholm said. In Maine, Davis' research shows most shark activity occurs in July and August.
"You've probably been swimming in the ocean with a shark and never even known it because the sharks aren't interested in us," Chisholm said.