You know it’s officially summertime in the Northeast when white sharks arrive in numbers. In New England and New York, white shark sightings have been on the rise since early June. One of the latest shark encounters to go viral was captured on video by a group of anglers returning to Rhode Island from a trip to the Northeast Canyons. The video, posted to Instagram by The Fleet RI, shows an opportunistic, roughly 15-foot white shark chowing down on a dead humpback whale off Block Island.
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Perhaps more stunning than the sight of such a large white shark actively feeding is the shark’s curiosity. At one point, it turns away from the whale and pokes its head out of the water to investigate the vessel, resembling the famous scene from Jaws… you know, right before Chief Brody’s all-time line, “You’re gonna need a bigger boat.”
As rare as it is to see a white shark in the midst of a meal, New Englanders—and specifically, Cape Codders—are no strangers to white shark warnings and sightings. Just a few weeks ago, my friend Ben Sussman, captain of In The Net Sportfishing out of Osterville, had a juvenile white shark lurking near his boat while fishing for striped bass in a rip on the south side of Cape Cod. White sharks have been spotted in Vineyard and Nantucket sounds many times before, but they tend to do most of their hunting off the outer Cape beaches—those that face the Atlantic—where grey seals and harbor seals nearly outnumber beachgoers in the summer.
More recently, a Long Island-based marine biologist and photographer/videographer, Chris Paparo of FishGuy Photos, reported several juvenile white shark sightings in one day off the South Shore.
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All of these sightings have come just weeks after a couple of white sharks were caught by shore-based shark fishermen on Nantucket, which led the Massachusetts Department of Marine Fisheries to remind anglers of the state’s shore-based shark fishing regulations that were implemented in 2025 to protect beachgoers.
As we head into the July 4th holiday—one of the busiest weeks on the water all year—boaters and anglers who encounter white sharks are reminded to be responsible and avoid interacting with them. Instead, take out a phone or camera to snap a few photos or record videos, and report sightings to the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy using their Sharktivity App.
Summer is just getting started, and these are only a few of the recorded white shark encounters so far this season—but they certainly won’t be the last.
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