The Atlantic Shark Institute shared a video on Sunday of an “elusive” great white shark that was recorded underwater off the coast of Rhode Island for the first time.
Sharing the video in a Sunday post on Facebook, the Atlantic Shark Institute announced, “We are really excited to share a first for Rhode Island and a first for the ASI’s Baited Remote Underwater Video System (BRUVs) research. In the last week we got a video of this beautiful juvenile great white shark cruising past one of our BRUVs near Block Island!”
The Atlantic Shark Institute explained that the type of great white shark that was captured in the underwater video can be “elusive” and has a “very small population” compared to other shark species in the Northwest Atlantic. Researchers added that the sharks are not easy to find or to witness in their natural environment.
“It’s a beautiful video and it was so wonderful to document this majestic shark cruising the waters near Block Island and investigating our BRUVs,” Atlantic Shark Institute Executive Director Jon Dodd said in a statement obtained by ABC 6.
“This is likely the first time anyone has seen this shark and, based on its size, it is likely a juvenile and perhaps even a young-of-the-year white shark,” Dodd added. “We are using technology to see how closely we might be able to estimate the shark’s length and age.”
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According to The Providence Journal, the video of the “elusive” great white shark was recorded by a baited remote underwater video system (BRUV) in roughly 45 feet of water near the Southwest Ledge, which is located off Block Island, Rhode Island. Dodd explained that the Atlantic Shark Institute has deployed between 150 and 200 BRUVs in the past four years.
“It’s a cage that we put bait in and then we attach a GoPro to it,” Dodd said. “We leave it for an hour, and then we come back and pull it up, and see what it is that we were able to capture.”
According to WJAR, Dodd said that while the Atlantic Shark Institute has spotted sea turtles, tuna fish, and multiple shark species with the BRUV systems, the video from Rhode Island is the “first time” one of the institute’s BRUVs recorded a great white shark.
“Erin Mullen, the Director of the Block Island Maritime Institute, was the first to review the BRUVs video and she was really excited to share what she found, and so were we,” Dodd said. “This is another excellent data point for our white shark research here in Southern New England and we hope it’s not the last.”
