A great white shark was tagged today off Chatham’s Monomoy Island, according to Greg Skomal, the state’s shark expert.

The shark was tagged through the dorsal fin using a harpoon from a boat, said Reggie Zimmerman, a spokesman for the state Executive Office of Envionmental Affairs.

Sharks have been attracted in recent years to Chatham, where the seal population has been on the rise. Seals are a favorite food for sharks.

Skomal and his team have been successfully tracking great white sharks since 2009 using PSAT (Pop-up Satellite Archival Transmitting) tags. These tags are designed to log the movements and behavior of sea animals that do not spend enough time on the surface to allow for real-time, satellite tracking.

Researchers can set a date and a time for the tags to dislodge itself from the animal. The tag then floats to the surface to download data to researchers.