FALMOUTH, MASS. (WHDH) - After a long day at work, Nate Rouette decided to hit the beach in Falmouth with his brother.
“Sharking is one of those things that you can kind of just go on the beach and catch up, pass the time; you put a couple rods out and if something happens – great, if it doesn’t you get to catch up and enjoy a nice night on the beach,” Rouette said.
But after two hours, his low-key night on the beach turned into an unforgettable one.
“It wasn’t until I gave the rod to my brother Nelson that I ran over and I grabbed the line when I saw that it was a tiger shark,” Rouette said.
Rouette, who has been fishing off the cape his whole life, couldn’t believe his eyes.
“I never thought I’d come across, like, a warm-water species like that on rodded reel on Cape Cod,” Rouette said.
Scientist John Chisholm says it’s new — but the area around the Cape might be attracting tiger sharks. He says another fisherman also found a juvenile tiger shark in the same spot almost exactly a year ago.
“We’re seeing a few more every year, and that’s a sign that things are changing,” Chisholm said. “What we know about tiger sharks is they like warm water, and when you look at climate change, you can see that the water is warming up now to be tolerable to these juvenile tiger sharks.”
While it’s likely the shark made its way up the Gulf Stream to Falmouth, it’s a rare occurrence that Rouette said was thrilling.
“Do I think I’ll run into another one? Maybe never in my lifetime, but they are definitely going to be more warm-water exotics that will make their way on the Cape as the years go on,” Rouette said.
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