Tiger shark off Falmouth signals warming seas, scientists say
Nate Rouette and his brother Nelson, both longtime Massachusetts sport fishermen, caught the shark while fishing from a beach in Falmouth. The brothers were targeting brown sharks when they reeled in the five-foot tiger shark, which Nate immediately recognized by its distinctive horizontal stripes.
“And I saw those horizontal lines, indicating it was a tiger shark, which was super cool,” said Nate Rouette, who is the social media manager for On The Water magazine. “Immediately I started yelling to my brother, ‘It’s a tiger, it’s a tiger shark!’ And he was in disbelief.”
The brothers released the shark after the catch. Tiger sharks are far more common in warmer, southern waters such as the Caribbean Sea, according to scientists. The appearance of a juvenile tiger shark off Falmouth is an indicator of warming seas caused by climate change, scientists said.