More than a dozen young great white sharks have been spotted feeding in the shallow waters off Pine Point Beach in Scarborough, Maine, in a multi-day gathering that local officials say they have never seen before. Video captured this week shows the sharks, mostly juveniles estimated at 6 to 8 feet long, swimming close to paddleboarders, waders, and swimmers in an area long popular for waist-deep recreational fishing.
The sightings began on Tuesday, August 4, when Scarborough Marine Resource Officer Daryen Granata received video from a local fisherman showing two juvenile great white sharks off Prouts Neck and the mouth of the Scarborough River, a sighting that was verified by a New England Aquarium scientist, according to CBS News. By Wednesday, drone monitoring had spotted an additional 5 to 7 white sharks feeding near Pine Point Beach, and Granata said the sheer volume of sharks gathered in one place was unprecedented in his more than 30 years working local waters.
Separate footage from Wednesday, cited by CBS News Boston, showed juvenile white sharks swimming alongside an angler on a paddleboard near the Pine Point sandbar, where water depths range from exposed sand at low tide to about 10 feet at high tide. In response, Scarborough public safety agencies deployed drones and aircraft to continuously monitor the intertidal zone, an area heavily used by waders, swimmers, and recreational fishermen throughout the summer.
Scientists Board Research Boat To Tag The Sharks
New England Aquarium adjunct scientist John Chisholm joined Scarborough officials on a research boat in early August to survey the gathering off Pine Point Beach and attempt to tag some of the animals, the same CBS News report noted. Chisholm, who manages shark sighting data for the regional Sharktivity tracking network, said warming waters in the Gulf of Maine are making northern coastal waters increasingly hospitable to white sharks, as well as to warm-water species like tiger sharks.
That warming trend fits into a longer pattern documented by state researchers. A March 2025 study published in Frontiers in Marine Science by Maine Department of Marine Resources scientists analyzed telemetry data from 2012 through 2023 and found that 107 tagged white sharks, mostly juveniles and subadults, had been detected off Maine's coast, with sharks present from May through December and peak activity between July and September, according to the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy.
Cape Cod Sharks Are Turning Up In Maine Waters
The connection between the two regions runs deep. Maine DMR monitoring data shows that 23% of the 60 white sharks tagged off Massachusetts by state biologists and the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy have subsequently been detected on Maine's coastal acoustic receiver array, and state records identified 93 unique great white sharks in Maine waters between 2020 and 2024, per the Associated Press.
Researchers largely credit the growing seasonal presence of white sharks along the New England coast to the long-term recovery of gray and harbor seal populations under the federal Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972. Gulf of Maine harbor seal populations were last estimated at roughly 75,000, according to New Hampshire Sea Grant, creating an abundant prey base that draws migrating white sharks northward each summer.
Only Two Unprovoked Attacks Recorded Since 1837
Despite the dramatic footage, Maine has recorded just two unprovoked shark attacks in its history, with recordkeeping dating back to 1837. The state's only fatal attack happened on July 27, 2020, when 63-year-old Julie Dimperio Holowach of New York City was killed by a great white shark while swimming in a wetsuit near seals off Bailey Island in Harpswell, the Associated Press reported.
Sightings like this summer's are not entirely new for the area. Scarborough officials previously issued advisories after an 8-foot white shark was confirmed off Richmond Island in July 2024, and a 10- to 12-foot white shark was recorded on drone video off Crescent Beach State Park and Pine Point Beach in August 2025, per WMTW. Local officials have noted that the growing use of personal drones and smartphone cameras has significantly increased how often ordinary shark activity gets detected and reported.
Why Maine Beaches Stay Open While Watching Closely
Under state and municipal guidelines, confirmed nearshore shark sightings trigger public awareness advisories urging beachgoers to avoid swimming near seals or schools of baitfish, stay close to shore in groups, and exit the water immediately if a shark is spotted. Unlike Massachusetts, where officials enforce mandatory swimming bans, Maine authorities typically restrict waders to waist-deep water or rely on drone monitoring rather than closing beaches outright, according to The Guardian.
Part of the reason officials lean so heavily on drones is technological. The passive acoustic receivers Maine DMR deploys along the coast store tracking data locally and must be physically retrieved in late fall before detection records can be downloaded, meaning they offer no real-time public safety warnings. Satellite tags mounted on shark fins only transmit coordinates when the fin breaks the surface long enough to reach a satellite, leaving gaps in tracking whenever the animals are swimming underwater, the Bangor Daily News reported. That combination of limitations is why real-time monitoring at Pine Point still depends heavily on visual sightings, municipal drone pilots, and reports from local fishermen and beachgoers.
