Massachusetts whale watch is on a heater seeing white sharks: ‘Something unprecedented is happening out there’

A North Shore whale watch is having a heck of a start to the season.

The 7 Seas Whale Watch out of Gloucester is on a heater so far, seeing more and more great white sharks in the northern waters.

After a trip on Sunday, the whale watch has now spotted five great white sharks so far this season.

“Prior to this we have only seen great whites 6 times total in 42 years in business so something unprecedented is happening out there right now,” 7 Seas Whale Watch posted.

“But let’s be real here: The chances of seeing a great white on a whale watch are very small,” the whale watch later added. “You need perfectly calm weather (so as to spot their fins at the surface) and a little luck. But there are clearly more of these apex predators in the area right now than usual so if you want to see one now would be a good time to go hunting for one.”

White sharks migrate north to Cape Cod and the Islands every summer and fall, looking to chomp on seals. The sharks have expanded their migration northward all the way to Maine and Canada.

During a recent trip, the whale watch had spotted two white sharks. The shark that they saw on Sunday did not appear to be from that pair.

“So there must be a lot of them in the area right now,” the whale watch posted.

Shark researcher John Chisholm examined a photo of the white shark from Sunday’s trip.

“… you’ll notice scratches on its head and tooth marks on its pectoral fin, evidence that it had a tussle with a seal,” posted Chisholm, who confirms shark sightings for the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy. “I wonder who prevailed? Seals are not defenseless and some do escape and survive such encounters.”

Also during Sunday’s whale watch, they saw a breaching basking shark, an ocean sunfish also known as a mola mola, a spiny dogfish shark, and humpback whales.