This remarkable discovery is the subject of a forthcoming National Geographic episode, "Baby Sharks in the City," set to stream on Disney+ and Hulu on July 8, and on Nat Geo on July 9, as part of the Sharkfest programming commencing June 30, according to The New York Post.
The shark nursery is situated in the New York Bight, a vast oceanic triangle formed by Cape May, NJ; Montauk Point, LI, and NYC. Capt. Greg Metzger, who leads the South Fork Natural Museum History Museum on Long Island, revealed that scientists have been studying baby white sharks in New York since the 1960s. However, it was only in the past decade that the existence of the "nursery" was confirmed.
WATCH: CNN HOST MELTS DOWN ON AIR
Dr. Tobey Curtis, a shark scientist with NOAA’s Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office, provided further insight into the shark nursery. He noted that the 100-foot-deep nursery, which was the focus of a two-week expedition last year, likely produces hundreds of great whites annually. "The babies are on their own from day one. Sharks don’t have parental care at all," Curtis explained.
WATCH: THE HYPOCRISY BEHIND CALLING TRUMP A DICTATOR
Curtis also clarified that while larger adult white sharks occasionally traverse Long Island via the New York Bight, they seldom overlap during the summer when the pups are present. The pups are "left alone," and the adults venture further north to regions like Cape Cod, Maine, and Canada. As the weather cools in the fall, they all migrate south.
ABORTION DEBATE HEATS UP: KAMALA HARRIS BEGS ARIZONA TO VOTE FOR BIDEN
The waters off Long Island, Curtis noted, are "healthy" and offer conditions that are "just right for baby sharks for a number of species," including makos, duskees, sandbar, and sand tigers. He added that the water gets warmer off New Jersey than it does on Eastern Long Island, so as the summer progresses, most of the white sharks are further east, closer to Montauk, and spend less time off Jersey.
JULIAN ASSANGE'S SURPRISE PLEA DEAL: WHAT’S NEXT FOR THE WIKILEAKS FOUNDER?
Curtis expressed his belief that New Yorkers might be surprised by the vibrant marine life in their vicinity. "There’s whales and dolphins and sea turtles and seals and all kinds of fish. New Yorkers may not appreciate how healthy the ocean is in their backyard," he said.
HISTORIC RULING SHAKES ISRAEL: ULTRA-ORTHODOX JEWS ORDERED TO JOIN IDF
Travis Bogin, a local resident, recently experienced this diversity firsthand. While fishing solo 12 miles off Atlantic City, he hooked a 5-and-half-foot great white, a moment he described as a "major bucket list thing" for him.
Reflecting on last summer's baby-shark expedition, Metzger said, "The big splash was to put a very sophisticated camera tag on a baby white shark. So we were able with a lot of blood, sweat, and tears to catch Liberty and put the tag on and follow her around." He added that over the first four years of their life, the sharks are "basically traveling the entire East Coast."
THIS ARIZONA ADVENTURER HAS TRAVELED TO EVERY SINGLE COUNTRY, HERE IS HIS TOP CHOICE...
Megan Winton, a research scientist who named the tagged baby white shark Liberty, emphasized that the popular perception of sharks as mindless killing machines is far from the truth. "But the more we study them, the more we learn that is certainly not the case. We are just starting to scratch the surface of what we know about these animals with these new technologies," she said.
