State Tightens Regulations For White Shark Fishing On Nantucket

The Division of Marine Fisheries has banned the use of certain specialized fishing equipment on Nantucket in an effort to protect white sharks, expanding the portion of the state’s shoreline where such equipment cannot be used.

“These emergency regulations are about protecting both public safety and one of Massachusetts' most iconic marine species,” Division of Marine Fisheries spokesperson Danielle Burney said. “Shore-based fishing that targets white sharks can draw them closer to beaches where people are swimming, while also increasing the risk of injury or death to the sharks themselves. Expanding these existing regulations to Nantucket will help keep our beaches safe, supports shark conservation, and allows anglers to continue fishing for other recreational species.”

The new emergency regulations block the use of metal or wire leaders measuring 18 inches or greater in combination with hooks with a gap larger than 5/8ths of an inch. The state said that the expansion was a response to “several documented incidents involving shore-based anglers targeting and catching white sharks on Nantucket and producing dangerous circumstances for swimmers and beachgoers.”

The Division of Marine Fisheries called this an “acute public safety risk,” noting that Nantucket had previously been excluded from the regulations because “its beaches have a long history of shore-based fishing for a variety of other shark species and there was little evidence to suggest anglers were targeting white sharks from the town’s shoreline.”

Videos of anglers catching white sharks on Nantucket have gone viral in recent months.

The equipment covered by the emergency regulations was already banned on much of eastern and northern Cape Cod.

For now, the regulations are only set to last 90 days, but the Division of Marine Fisheries said in an advisory notice that they may become permanent for the 2027 season.

“Massachusetts has become a seasonal destination for anglers seeking to target white sharks,” the advisory reads in part. “Baiting and fishing for white sharks from shore poses unnecessary public safety risks and may be harmful or lethal to the shark.”

Other regulations make it illegal to intentionally fish for white sharks, but the difficulty in discerning between anglers who are trying to catch sharks intentionally and those who catch them accidentally prompted the state to enact the ban across parts of the Cape in 2025. Now, that ban has been expanded to Nantucket.

Fishing for other shark species, such as brown sharks and sand tiger sharks, is still permitted.