Celebrating the Majesty of Sharks.
Nantucket Island , Massachusetts
Nantucket Island in the Northeastern United States is home to lots of shark species during the warmer months of the year (june - october). Offshore we get large numbers of big northeast blue sharks and makos. This is the new blue/mako dive location with double digit shark days not uncommon. It is also possible to see duskies, hammers, and tigers during August and September. We also get good amounts of Basking sharks that migrate here to feed every year during the summer months, June and July being the best months. Inshore smaller sharks like dogfish and sandbar sharks can be thick and found easily but putting some chum down on the bottom in the sheltered Nantucket Sound side of the island. There are also large amounts of whales, dolphins, and pelagics encountered on nearly every offshore trip.
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Nantucket Shark Dive.mov, 1.9 MB
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Terri on -
Holy cow! There are many sharks there. I never knew! I`ve been to Province town, Cape Cod in summer and I loved there!! Is there also diveshop around that area?? I didnt go in the water though. It looked cold...
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Permalink Reply by Bryce Rohrer on -
Terri, yes there are dive shops and charters in almost every big town on Cape Cod. Provincetown is on the northern tip of the cape and does get much colder water from the Labrador Current than we do on Nantucket. We're located further south and get the best of both worlds having the cold Labrador Current to the east and the warm Gulfstream to our south. Most of our diving happens between 8 and 20 miles offshore in 68 - 74 degree water with a 20 - 100 ft viz. Just offshore of Provincetown is the famous "Stellwagen Bank" epic place for whales, tuna, dolphin, blues and big makos. If your every back in the area and want to do some shark diving let me know and I can help you out.
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Permalink Reply by Andy Murch on -
Hey Bryce, regarding the little inshore sharks that you chum up, do you see dusky smoothhounds aka smooth dogfish?
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Permalink Reply by Bryce Rohrer on
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Andy, we have got a lot of dogfish species up here. The most common are the spiny dogfish which is almost over abundant around Nantucket. All you need to do is drop some chum on the Nantucket Sound side of the island in 15 - 60 ft. of water and wait for them to arrive, doesn't take long. Spinies are what we get really thick but I have seen some other species as well. It's def. a good location for that family of shark.
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Permalink Reply by Andy Murch on
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Hey Bryce, thanks for the info.
FYI Spinies and smooth dogfish are about as distantly related as you can get. Smooth dogfish are a type of smoothhound shark which is reasonably closely related to your average looking reef shark that you'd find in the tropics. Spiny dogfish are squaloids which puts them on the other side of the tree. They are more closely related to sleeper sharks like the enormous Greenland shark. Crazy but true.
So, if we were to try chumming around Nantucket what would the likelihood be of getting shots of smooth dogfish (dusky smoothhounds) on any given day? Spinies are everywhere as you say, so I am not really looking to shoot them at this point.
I'm flying into RI in July to do some other shark diving. Could try this too if it will attract smooth dogs.
-Andy
Bryce Rohrer said:Andy, we have got a lot of dogfish species up here. The most common are the spiny dogfish which is almost over abundant around Nantucket. All you need to do is drop some chum on the Nantucket Sound side of the island in 15 - 60 ft. of water and wait for them to arrive, doesn't take long. Spinies are what we get really thick but I have seen some other species as well. It's def. a good location for that family of shark.
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Permalink Reply by Bryce Rohrer on
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Gotcha, we've got a lot of hounds and dogfish in the area. I've seen hounds a few times, I can't tell you exactly what kind but they were distinctive because they were a lot bigger than dogfish. The two are found in similar habitats. All of my focus the last few years has been on the bigger sharks, blues, makos, baskers etc. I'll do some research for you and dive some areas with chum where the hounds would be found and let you know what happens.
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Permalink Reply by Andy Murch on
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Bryce,
That would be great. Please let me know how it goes.
-Andy
Bryce Rohrer said:Gotcha, we've got a lot of hounds and dogfish in the area. I've seen hounds a few times, I can't tell you exactly what kind but they were distinctive because they were a lot bigger than dogfish. The two are found in similar habitats. All of my focus the last few years has been on the bigger sharks, blues, makos, baskers etc. I'll do some research for you and dive some areas with chum where the hounds would be found and let you know what happens.
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Permalink Reply by Bryce Rohrer on
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Will do, by July we should have a lock on where they can be found......Talk to you then
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Permalink Reply by Andy Murch on
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Hey Bryce. I am flying in to RI to do some work with Joe Romeiro from the 20th-27th. How did the chumming session go?
Bryce Rohrer said:Will do, by July we should have a lock on where they can be found......Talk to you then
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