I wonder if Barry Clifford would have had the same peace of mind salvaging the Whydah wreck today versus 35 years ago in light of the Great White population?
I have thought of that myself but the timing worked in Cliffords favor.
He discovered the wreck of the pirate ship Whydah (1717) in relatively shallow water off Marconi Beach Wellfleet, Cape Cod in 1984.
With the exploding seal population, that area started to attract white sharks about about 20 years later when seals cut in half started to show up ashore on the beach.
In 2008 Tuna spotter pilot Wayne Davis took photos of a white shark close to shore south of Wellleet, and in 2009 tagging white sharks began and is ongoing to this day.
The Whydah wrecksite at Marconi Beach is a white shark sighting hot spot these days- but Clifford had plenty of years to recover artifacts like coins and canons etc. from the Whydah before the whites dominated that area. -Tom