Cape Clasp Goes Shark Tagging With Atlantic White Shark Conservancy
I had never been on a Shark Tagging mission before... and I had no idea what I was getting myself into.
"Full speed ahead!" yelled the Captain of the Atlantic White Shark (ACWSC) chase boat. I looked up in the sky to see the spotter plane take a tight turn as it circled around our target's location - a MASSIVE 16 foot great white shark. The radios were buzzing in and out. "Roger this, Roger that" "Shark ahead, 50 meters" "Faster! or we lose'em!"
"Harpoon!?" I thought. His shipmate opened a chest and pulled out a tagger pole almost as long as the shark itself. He stepped out onto the extended bow pulpit and took aim as we slowly approached our target.
Headed to the waypoint, we knew it could vanish in a matter of seconds. The Captain looked anxious as the shouted, "Prepare the Harpoon!"
Time stopped, and he dug the tip into the White Shark. He pushed down hard, the detachable steel tip anchoring the tags firmly into the base of the dorsal fin.
If you're unfamiliar with Shark research, Shark tagging is useful because we now have the ability to track local and long range movements, study behavior and biology, and estimate population size.
At Cape Clasp, our mission is to make waves for marine life causes, and in four years, we have donated thousands of dollars to nonprofits like Atlantic White Shark Conservancy... But how did we get here?
Hi. Pat here, founder of Cape Clasp. I founded Cape Clasp in 2013, inspired by my passion for Cape Cod and the Islands.
Cape Cod has been home for me ever since I was a little kid. After college however, I moved up to Boston for work, and quickly lost my connection to the Cape. In an attempt to reestablish that connection, I started sharing photos of my favorite spots on Instagram and then thought it would be cool to turn that content into a brand.
For 2 years, everyday after my day job, I would come home and work on this project into the late hours of the night. Through that process we released our first design: a bracelet shaped like Cape Cod, and we developed a non-profit partnership model with the Cape Cod National Seashore.
The last 5 years have been a refinement of that same process. From our humble beginnings, Cape Clasp has grown into a purpose-driven brand with a mission to #makewaves for marine life causes. For each of our bracelet designs, we partner with an organization in the ocean and marine life space and donate 15% of profits to support their research (capeclasp.com).
Our partners include:
Cape Cod National Seashore, Atlantic White Shark Conservancy, Whale and Dolphin Conservation, The Nakawe Project, Bimini Shark Lab, The Trustees, and Cape Cod Times Needy Fund.
