• Thresher Shark Sighting Form

  • Contact Information - NECWA will not share your contact information with any other organization or business. This information will only be used to verify the sighting information. 

  • Thresher Shark stranded on a beach on Cape Cod.

  • Atlantic Common Thresher Shark

    The Atlantic Common Thresher Shark, Alopias vulpinus, are named for their extremely long, scythe-like tail that is used to stun their prey. The tail or caudal fin is typically half the size of the body. Thresher sharks eat mainly schooling fish, including herring and mackerel.
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  • General Sighting Information

  •  - -Pick a Date :

  • Note: Please enter the GPS coordinates (latitude and longitude) if you know them. If you did not record these coordinates for this sighting, you can provide an estimated location by using Google Maps or Google Earth.

    On Google Maps, place the cursor where the animal was seen and double click to bring up a dialog box providing the latitude and longitude. 

    On Google Earth, place your cursor where the animal was seen and the latitude and longitude will appear on the bottom right.  

    If you need to convert your latitude and longitude to decimal degrees, go the Earth Point website at https://www.earthpoint.us for a free online converter. 

  • Anatomy of a Thresher Shark

    Use the diagram below to familiarize yourself with the basic anatomy of a Thresher Shark.
  • Anatomy of a ray

  • For Stranded Thresher Sharks, call the NECWA Resue Hotline Number.

    If the Thresher Shark is injured offshore or stranding live, do not try to help or rescue the animal for you could get hurt. Instead, call the NECWA rescue number at 508-566-0009.

  • Sighting Information

    Please answer the questions below about this specific sighting. This Jotform is meant to report only 1 animal per form. However, if you observe more than one animal and they are clustered together, you can group them together in this Jotform.

  • How to Determine the Sex of a Shark.

    If the animal is stranding live, do not get close to the shark and do not attempt to sex the individual. If the animal is dead, look for the reproductive structures on the underside of the body that can help you determine the sex of the shark. Only male Thresher Sharks have claspers that are used to transfer sperm to the female.
  • Diagram showing how to sex a torpedo ray

  • Photo Documentation

    Photographs and videos of each sighting help us verify the species and allows us to pull out additional information, including behaviors and associations. Even blurry or distant photos are useful to us.

  • Upload Images - Please upload any photographs of the Torpedo Ray you were able to collect.

    Send any additional photos or videos to NECWA at contact@necwa.org. 

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  • Thank you for sending us this sighting report of a Thresher Shark. To learn more about the New England Coastal Wildlife Alliance (NECWA), go to our website at 

     www.necwa.org

  • NECWA logo

  • The New England Coastal Wildlife Alliance (NECWA), is an all-volunteer nonprofit based in southeastern MA. We work to better understand and protect the unique coastal marine wildlife in New England waters. Your efforts are helping us achive this goalTo learn more about NECWA and to support this project and our other community projects, go to www.necwa.org.

    NECWA is also interested in sightings of basking sharks, ocean sunfish, torpedo rays, Diamondback terrapins and box turtles. Go to www.necwa.org to report your sightings.

    Thank You

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