According to researchers, they have spotted over a dozen great white sharks off the coast of Chatham last week. A team of researchers spotted the sharks in an expedition last Thursday. The team consisted of state Division of Marine Fisheries biologist Greg Skomal and members of the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy.

The researchers followed sightings that were reported by a spotter plane, which was flying along with their position. According to the researchers, sighting of 16 sharks was a record breaking number, when it comes to a single survey. The 17th was spotted with help of an acoustic tag that was attached earlier.

As per researchers, they spotted two more sharks, which were not captured in video footage and with that the total becomes 19.

Atlantic White Shark Conservancy Cynthia Wigren said that the day was quite busy for them. The expedition was among usual shark-spotting trips of the conservancy, they undertake throughout the summer. As per the Globe, generally, the group detects five to 10 sharks during each trip.

Earlier, Skomal got video recording of a great white shark off Chatham; it was of 10 foot and a number of other pings were also detected off the Duxbury coast by acoustic receivers. There were shark detections on July 10 and 17. Apart from Duxbury, the offshore receivers have been expanded to make detections in Wellfleet, Provincetown, Scituate and Plymouth.

According to Skomal, "Yes, sharks do frighten people — and occasionally bite them. But they are also integral to a healthy ocean, and we eat them a lot more than they eat us”.