Martha’s Vineyard is a Massachusetts island that lies in the Atlantic Ocean south of Cape Cod. You may be about to visit Martha’s Vineyard and be interested to know if there are any great white sharks in Martha’s Vineyard.
There are great white sharks in Martha’s Vineyard, mostly between June and November when waters warm to over 12°C (53.6°F). Great white sharks prefer water temperatures above 12°C and come to feed on the proliferation of harbour and grey seals before heading back down south along the US coastline.
If you would love to dive with great white sharks, one of the best ways to do this is to book yourself on a scuba diving liveaboard that visits Guadalupe Island in Mexico. You can check the latest and best deals on liveaboards using the following window:
Shark tracker Martha’s Vineyard – Great white shark Charlotte pinged near Martha’s Vineyard
Great white shark Charlotte image courtesy of Ocearch – Are there great white sharks in Martha’s Vineyard
Great white shark Charlotte has a tracker and been pinged near Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts. When white shark Charlotte was tagged on 29th March 2021 in Onslow Bay, she was 338lbs (153kg) and 8′ 1″ (2.46 metres) long.
The tracking lines in the above image of Charlotte great white shark was when she last visited the area around Martha’s Vineyard Island in August 2021. Prior to this she was pinged on 15th August 2021 in Bigelow Bight just off from Ogunquit, before she swam across Massachusetts bay to Cape Cod Bay.
Sighting of great white shark off Martha’s Vineyard
This is a video of a great white shark sighting off Martha’s Vineyard coming close to their boat.
https://youtu.be/HFQSGHnlOrE
Mega Shark off Martha’s Vineyard Great White Shark sighting off Martha’s Vineyard
Why are there so many great white sharks in Martha’s Vineyard?
The reason why there are so many great white sharks in Martha’s Vineyard is because of increased numbers of harbour and grey seals since these seals were protected by law under the US Marine Mammal Protection Act. Great white sharks are a protected species too and hunt this growing seal population.
It is the harbour seal that is most common in Martha’s Vineyard vs the grey seals. But there are also harp seals and hooded seals found in Martha’s Vineyard too.
Great white sharks won’t be fussy about the type of seal they eat, be it harbour, grey, harp or hooded seal, as they all are blubber and energy rich food sources for the large predators.
Why do great white sharks visit Marth’s Vineyard?
The reason why Martha’s Vineyard is visited by great white sharks is because the water temperature stays above 12°C (53.6°F) in June through to November, with a high of around 22°C (71.6°F) in July and August.
Great white sharks prefer water temperatures between 12-24°C (54-75 °F), which means they may visit Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts between the months of June and November each year when water temperatures in the area are can be within this perfect white shark sea temperature range.
Whilst sea temperatures are usually above 12°C in June, water temperatures can rise above this in May too. Which means that great white sharks may start arriving early in May aswell.
Martha’s Vineyard beaches where you can see great white sharks
Norton Point beach and South Beach are two of the Martha’s Vineyard beaches where there have been sightings of great white sharks on the south of the island.
I hope you enjoyed this article about are there great white sharks in Martha’s Vineyard
If this article hasn’t answered all of your questions. If you have more questions either about snorkelling or scuba diving (or specifically about are there great white sharks in Martha’s Vineyard), please comment below with your questions.
There will also be many more articles about scuba and scuba diving safety tips (and on snorkelling too) for you to read and learn about this fabulous sport.
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Article written by Russell Bowyer who has been a scuba diver since diving on the Great Barrier Reef in Australia in 1989. After his first dive he trained as a BSAC diver in the UK. He attained his Diver Leader certification with BSAC. He then went on to become a scuba diving instructor, teaching others how to dive and was voted as Diving Officer and Treasurer for the Saffron Walden BSAC club too. Russell has dived all over the world, including the UK, on liveaboards in the Red Sea, the Caribbean, South Africa and the USA. Russell is experienced in all dive types, including drift diving, deep dives that involved decompression stops and recreational dives too.
