Overview
- Researchers from the Atlantic Shark Institute and Mystic Aquarium located a drifting roughly 40-foot humpback whale after a public report and searched about 50 square miles before finding the carcass near Block Island.
- During that search crews recorded underwater video of an estimated 8-foot great white actively feeding on the whale, footage the Atlantic Shark Institute said may be the first such recording in Rhode Island waters.
- The nonprofit described the shark as healthy and well fed, and Mystic Aquarium staff used the opportunity to collect tissue samples from the whale for research into whale health and scavenger interactions.
- The whale carcass later washed ashore on Crescent Beach with numerous shark bites, confirming multiple feeding events while researchers worked to document the scene.
- Scientists say the encounter is a valuable look at how whale deaths concentrate large predators but caution that isolated sightings do not by themselves indicate broader changes in regional great white populations.