( CNN ) -- The largest great white shark expedition in U.S. history is at sea off the coast of Massachusetts -- the same waters fictionally terrorized by the most infamous great white of them all in the film `` Jaws . '' `` Expedition Cape Cod 2013 '' is led by OCEARCH , a nonprofit that researches and tracks the migration of sharks , among other things , on its Global Shark Tracker website . OCEARCH researchers , who set out on Monday , will spend the next month trying to capture , tag and release 20 great white sharks in the water off of Cape Cod , Massachusetts -- an area that has seen an uptick in shark visits in recent years . Shark attack claims Brazilian teen 's life . `` The increased summertime population of great white sharks off Cape Cod has drawn significant science and public safety attention , '' said Greg Skomal , who is heading up the team of researchers . Their study will seek to find out why . Tony LaCasse , spokesman for the New England Aquarium in Boston , says the increase in shark sightings in that part of the world is actually the result of a very good thing : the return of an ecosystem . White sharks love to dine on gray seals , and gray seals eat fish -- the very same fish Massachusetts fishermen were trying to catch . It was custom for them to be shot on site a generation ago , explains LaCasse . Opinion : How the world is saving sharks . That stopped in 1972 with the passage of the Marine Mammal Protection Act . But the damage had already been done , the gray seal population had been nearly wiped out , and the great white had to seek dinner elsewhere . Those that remained became the target of fishermen , thanks to Hollywood . `` There was a dramatic reduction in the population of great white sharks in the wake of 'Jaws , ' `` LaCasse told CNN . Man wrestles sharks with his bare hands . Now , several years later -- about enough time for a seal population to regenerate and for great whites to be attracted by a food source -- `` Jaws '' returns for a sequel , sort of . But not everyone is headed north for a summer on the Cape -- `` Lori Anne '' is a female shark that OCEARCH tagged near Cape Cod last June . According to Global Shark Tracker , Tuesday she turned up off the coast of West Palm Beach , Florida .
The waters off Cape Cod have seen an uptick in shark visits in recent years . An expedition is at sea to investigate and tag-and-release great whites . Hide Caption