[Capt. Tom]

This is the time of year surfers like to give it a try but I think there will be less of that type of activity on Cape Cod until November.

When the lifeguards are gone the more adventurous can swim further offshore.- Tom

[budj]

Shark Lives Matter

[dfwgator]

We’re gonna need a bigger boat!

[Jim W N]

More danger, fewer life guards. Hmmm. Makes sense...

What, they’re worried about sharks running up on the beach and gabbing a lifeguard??

Goofy.

[Jim W N]

[gov_bean_ counter]

Not to worry

Sharks will social distance...

[Seruzawa]

[mass55th]

Hey Joe, they’ve got a lifeguard opening at this beach.

[Redwood71]

Both seals and sharks have inhabited waters around Cape Cod and the Islands for centuries, long before humans.

Both have been increasing in numbers since the passage of federal regulations after populations were severely depleted by hunting and fishing in the late 1970’s. Population numbers for both seals and sharks in Cape waters are unknown due to their seasonal migrations and foraging behaviors.

Sharks eat seals. The two main ones in the northeast are harbor and gray seals and their populations have exploded. So as the seal come and go, so do the sharks.

As for human attacks, four million people visit the Cape Cod National Seashore each year. As the human population increases, more people are visiting beaches. The 2018 fatal shark attack on the Cape was the first in Massachusetts in more than 80 years (last was 1936 in Mattapoisett). A fatal shark attack occurs once every 730 million beach visits, or about one in a billion chance (Stanford University study). Sharks do bite to find out what the thing in the water is. But they generally turn them loose when they don’t taste like a seal.

They did the same regulations in California as a state and now they have seals coming out of their armpits. And the sharks came in when the buffet started getting bigger from San Diego to a lot of Oregon. If you feed them, they will come. San Diego is one of the top five shark locations in the world.

The 2019 worldwide total of 64 confirmed unprovoked cases were lower than the most recent five-year (2014-2018) average of 82 incidents annually. There were five fatal attacks this year, two of which were confirmed to be unprovoked. This number is in line with the annual global average of four fatalities per year.

https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/shark-attacks/yearly-worldwide-summary/#:~:text=The%202019%20worldwide%20total%20of,of%20four%20fatalities%20per%20year.

rwood