The Potential for Great White Sharks to Frequent the Long Island Sound

• Main Author: McCarthy, Jake
• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: The Open Repository @ Binghamton (The ORB) 2019
• Subjects: sharks; Long Island; New England; Ocean; Natural and Applied Sciences; Long Island Sound; Northwest Atlantic
• Online Access: https://orb.binghamton.edu/alpenglowjournal/vol5/iss1/3; https://orb.binghamton.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1088&context=alpenglowjournal

There are a few species of sharks that regularly inhabit the coastal waters of Long Island, New York. Rising water temperatures and increasing human/seal populations in the New England/Long Island region have the potential to cause alterations in local species composition, especially as white shark populations continue to grow in the northwest Atlantic Ocean. Increased competition may drive species such as sand tiger sharks and white sharks into areas previously thought to house low shark concentrations, such as the Long Island Sound. This work was written so that tourists and the people of New England become informed as to the ever-changing ecology of our aquatic ecosystems. Spotting a shark in the Long Island Sound is now a “once in a blue moon” event, but this may change with alterations in our local ecology.