A Big, Toothy Celebrity

Mary Lee is a 16-foot, 3,456-pound great white shark. She’s about the size of a Honda Accord, or an Audi A5, for those who favor European rides. Mary Lee was captured, satellite tagged, and released on Sept. 17, 2012, in the waters surrounding Cape Cod by OCEARCH, a marine research organization that focuses on keystone marine species including great whites. 

While Mary Lee might not be the star of Discovery Channel’s Shark Week, she’s quite a celebrity. She has her own Facebook page with nearly 63,000 likes and a Twitter page with 98,000 followers. She’s an oceanic Kardashian. Like many celebrities, she has visited the East End. On May 12 of this year, Mary Lee surfaced a couple miles off East Hampton beaches before heading south along the East Coast.  

Mary Lee certainly has a little rolling stone in her. Since she was tagged in 2012, she has traveled more than 34,000 miles, including a visit to Bermuda. She has ranged as far north as Massachusetts and as far south as Florida. She last surfaced on June 20 near the Pelagic Sargassum Habitat Restricted Area off the coast of Georgia. Will Mary Lee return to local waters? Possibly. She likely will begin heading north sometime soon, though whether or not she hits the Hamptons again this summer is anyone’s guess.

While the thought of Mary Lee frolicking close to shore might be unsettling to some, the risk to swimmers and surfers is miniscule. The International Shark Attack File reported that there were only 59 unprovoked shark attacks and one resulting fatality in the United States in 2015. For comparison purposes, there are some 1.5 million deer-vehicle collisions each year, killing about 130 to 200 people, according to the United States Department of Transportation. That’s right, deer are more dangerous than sharks. Even cows kill more people than sharks, about 20 per year, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Mr. Spielberg, how about a scary cows flick in 2017? It has been 41 years since “Jaws.” 

Hollywood films and a long list of television shows have done a great job conditioning the public to fear sharks. But if screenwriters really want to scare people, maybe they should focus on the eight-inch blue ring octopus, which has venom 1,000 times more powerful than cyanide, or the chironex, a beautiful box jellyfish that kills more people than sharks, crocodiles, and snakes combined in Australia. What about the stonefish, the most venomous fish in the sea? 

Very little is known about a great white shark’s mating habits, including the number of pups in a litter and how often they reproduce. A live birth has never been recorded. Scientists believe female great whites don’t sexually mature until 16 years old. After mating, the female develops several eggs, which hatch in her womb. Research suggests that newly hatched pups feed in utero on unfertilized and fertilized eggs, making Cain and Abel look like BFFs (that’s best friends forever, old folks) compared to great white shark siblings. Great whites are estimated to live 30 to 40 years, though a 2014 study by scientists at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution indicates that the sharks can live more than 70 years. Great whites are currently protected under several federal laws, regulations, and management efforts. 

Elias, a 6.75-foot, 100-pound smooth hammerhead shark, was captured, tagged, and released on July 19, 2015, off of Montauk. His satellite tag last pinged a location south of Long Island on Sept. 16, 2015. A few weeks earlier he had surfaced inland west of Fort Pond Bay. Elias’s present location is unknown. Perhaps his tag was dislodged or he met an unfortunate end. The ocean can be a cruel place, even for a hammerhead shark. 

One can follow Mary Lee’s travels and those of other sharks tagged by OCEARCH at ocearch.org. 

Black sea bass season is now open. The size limit is 15 inches and the possession limit is three fish for the period between June 27 through Aug. 31. The possession limit increases to eight fish from Sept. 1 through Oct. 31 and 10 fish from Nov. 1 through Dec. 31. Local waters are packed with sea bass, according to all reports, but, with many thieving shorts and porgies in the mix, be sure to bring lots of bait.

Schools of stripers just shy of the 28-inch size limit have entered the bay. They have been caught in the Race and Plum Gut on bucktails and eels, on the flats by fly-fishing clients of Capt. Merritt White, and in Kelly Lester’s pound nets. Sand eels are in thick and bluefish are gorging themselves at Bostwick Point and outside Accabonac Harbor. If you just want to have fun with the bluefish rather than keep some for dinner, use an Atom plug with a single hook. Maybe even crush the barb for an easy and safe release.

Harvey Bennett at the Tackle Shop in Amagansett reported that porgy fishing remains strong everywhere and that blowfish, a.k.a. bottlefish, can be caught from the pier in scenic Navy Road Park in Montauk. He added that Brendan Fennel landed a 42-pound striper at the South Ferry slip on North Haven on a live bunker and that an 8.5-pound fluke was caught off Napeague. 

Ken Morse at Tight Lines Tackle in Sag Harbor reported that fluke fishing is spotty but some anglers have had success in deeper water east of the Ruins. Weakfish continue to cooperate in Noyac Bay. 

Sebastian Gorgone at Mrs. Sam’s Bait and Tackle in East Hampton reported that umbrella rigs with rubber shad are the hot item for stripers at the Race and fluke are biting outside the entrance of Three Mile Harbor.

Paul Apostolides at Paulie’s Tackle in Montauk reported that bluefish continue to dominate the Montauk Point surfcasting action, with some small bass grabbing a hook now and then. Boats are having better success with larger bass, particularly those fishing the rips early morning or at night. He said fluke and cod fishing are strong south of the Point. 

The 46th annual Montauk Marine Basin shark tag tournament took place last weekend with 350 anglers participating. Capt. Rob Aaronson of the charter boat Oh Brother won the categories of largest overall and first-place thresher with a 278.4-pound catch. The first-place mako prize was awarded to George Limosani Jr. from the boat Golden Rod with a mako weighing in at 236.8 pounds. James Gravel Jr. from the boat Taylor May won first place in the blue shark category with a 252.8-pound shark.

The Star Island Yacht Club and Marina’s third annual fluke tournament is on July 9. 

Our fishing columnist can be found on Twitter, at @ehstarfishing. Photos of prize catches can be emailed to David Kuperschmid at [email protected]