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Most of the great white sharks that hang around Cape Cod have started heading south toward warmer waters after another “very productive” research season. Shark scientists with the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy tagged dozens of the apex predators this year, bringing the researchers’ total to 279 sharks tagged in the last several years. During the fieldwork this shark season, Atlantic White Shark Conservancy researchers with the Division of Marine Fisheries put out 39 acoustic tags and 10 special CATs tags that give scientists a sharks’ eye view through video footage. “We got a lot accomplished, a lot of tags went...

Sharks and tourism at what cost? Joseph Troy, July 25, 1936 (Death) Ida Parker and Kristin Orr, September 4, 2014 Cleveland Bigelow, August 13, 2017 William Lytton, August 15, 2018 Arthur Medici, September 15, 2018 (Death) Julie Dimperio Holowach July 27, 2020 (Death) This is a list of people across New England that have had their lives significantly altered by 'encounters' with (great) white sharks. Some have survived the unprovoked attacks; others are no longer with us. Notice the distinctive increase in shark attacks in just a four-year period. The debate over how to respond to the dramatic increase in...

...snip.. Later, Sexton realized the brief session contained the unsolvable puzzle. The waters of Cape Cod were not going to be free of white sharks or people anytime soon, and for all of his work studying the predators, he could not answer the most basic question. “It was awesome to be in the water and to see her there,” he said. “But should we really be in the water? I don’t know.” Lanctot did not know either. “Felt really good to get back in the water,” she texted that evening. Then the old foreboding returned. By mid-October, peak season for...

Four great white sharks were spotted close together off Chatham earlier this week, a reminder that it’s still peak season for white shark activity off the Cape as October starts. Spotter pilot Wayne Davis the other day took the photo of the four white sharks during an Atlantic White Shark Conservancy ecotourism trip. Those with the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy said it’s important to let people know that great white shark peak season continues through October, and that people should remain “Shark Smart” and follow safety guidelines. Based on years of shark tagging data, the great white shark peak activity...

Walking down the dock at Long Wharf in August 2020, I was giddy with anticipation. Ulysse Nardin, the Swiss luxury watchmaker, had invited me to tour a 126-foot ship that was docked in Boston before its upcoming voyage. I have minimal interest in fancy timepieces, but couldn’t wait to learn about the boat and its owners and operators, Ocearch, a nonprofit that Ulysse Nardin sponsors. The international research vessel had been tricked out so it could haul white sharks aboard for study before returning them to the sea. I often joke that my spirit animal is a seal, because I...

CHATHAM, Mass. (AP) — There’s no ominous music, no telltale fin breaking the surface as the powerful silhouette of a great white shark glides alongside the small tour boat off Cape Cod in Massachusetts. Michael Simard crouches low and points a finger in the direction of the roughly 10-foot (3-meter) predator cruising in the glassy water below. The 48-year-old construction foreman from Cambridge, Massachusetts, glances back at his partner, Penny Antonoglou, who dutifully pulls out her smartphone while he holds the pose. Smile. Click. “It’s awe-inspiring, really,” Simard said after the tour, where they spotted at least six great whites....

Shark biologist John Chisholm shared photos of multiple sharks seen on Monday, including one feeding off a dead humpback. “Several white sharks sighted today off MA including one enormous individual feeding on a dead humpback whale,” he wrote on Facebook. “The two others seem tiny in comparison. One of the smaller ones is towing a recently deployed tag.” The shark feeding off the whale is estimated to be larger than 17 feet, the Facebook post stated. Videos of the whale were also shared on Captain John Boats’ Facebook page, which is a tour company. “We started off with a couple...

It turns out novelist Peter Benchley, director Steven Spielberg and the “Jaws” book and movie were right – you don’t want to go swimming off the coast of Massachusetts. According to the latest reports, Cape Cod, Massachusetts, is now considered to be the shark capital of the world as the U.S. has overtaken Australia for the dubious ‘country with the most shark attacks’ honor. Forget the “We’re #1” chants and the boat – we’re gonna need a bigger warning sign. The Atlantic White Shark Conservancy’s Sharktivity App (you knew there was an app for this) shows 50 great whites off...

‘Vast majority’ of Covid-19 cluster in Cape Cod were vaccinatedIn Cape Cod, a geographic cape extending into the Atlantic Ocean in Massachusetts, the vaccinated are falling ill with Covid-19. The American town with one of the highest vaccination rates in the state, now has the highest rate of new cases. An official told ABC News on Monday that the “vast majority” of the 132 Covid-19 cases were among vaccinated individuals. At least 33 people in a nursing home in Yarmouth on Cape Cod have tested positive for SARS-Cov-2. Most of the residents that tested positive were vaccinated, reported the Boston...

WELLFLEET (CBS) – Just this week, a shark was spotted at Duxbury Beach forcing people out of the water. From flags to signs, to alerts on your phone, if you head to the beach this summer, you’ll know if a shark has been spotted. Numerous sightings over the years have put beachgoers on edge about entering the water. However, there is a new electrical shark deterrent product that may allow people and sharks to coexist in the ocean. “We really want to encourage people to be safe in and out of the water,” says Olaf Valli owner and president of...

WELLFLEET--I had been trying to avoid this question for a long time. But I guess Shark Week is the perfect time to admit that you're "shark weak," so here we go. It started with this: "Are you too scared of sharks to swim in the ocean?" This cut deep. I have been wrestling with the shark thing for a few years now. For most of my Cape life, boogie boarding in Wellfleet with my family was the absolute top of Joy Mountain, and I think the happiest I have ever been was when all four of us were riding the...

ON A WINDY MORNING in March, two older surfers at LeCount Hollow Beach, on Cape Cod, look out at the gray Atlantic. They are scanning the water closest to shore for seals, with whom they increasingly have to share the frigid water, which can dip as low as 37 degrees Fahrenheit in winter. The seals are a growing demographic. They have been rebounding since the 1970s, after almost being hunted to extinction. They are recolonizing what was once their native habitat, migrating seasonally up and down the coast. The surfers, too, have started to migrate, with many now surfing exclusively...

Cape lifeguards told people to get out of the water for the second straight day Sunday, as great white shark sightings start to pick up along the shore just in time for the official start of summer. Cape Cod National Seashore lifeguards at Truro’s Head of the Meadow Beach blew their whistles late Sunday morning with the appearance of a shark offshore. “A temporary no-swimming order has been issued by CCNS Lifeguards at Head of the Meadow beach,” the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy’s Sharktivity app alert reads. “Beach-only activities permitted,” the shark alert continues. “This order will expire after one...

His name’s not Jonah — but this Cape Cod man sure has something in common with the biblical figure now. Commercial lobster diver Michael Packard was going about his business off the coast off Provincetown, Mass. when he was swallowed whole by a humpback whale — trapped in its gullet for nearly a minute before being coughed back up, according to a report. Packard, 56, was about 35 feet below the surface near Herring Cove Beach at 8 a.m. Friday when the massive mammal tried to turn him into breakfast, the Cape Cod Times reported. “All of a sudden, I...

A Cape Cod fisherman is recovering after miraculously emerging without serious injuries from spending nearly a minute in the maw of a humpback whale who mistook him for a snack. “I was lobster diving and a humpback whale tried to eat me,” fisherman Packard wrote on Facebook. This salty tale begins innocuously, with the 56-year-old sea captain Packard on Friday morning looking for lobsters near Provincetown, where he’s from. He dove into the ocean to check a trap — when a passing whale gulped him down. “He was in a whale’s mouth for 30 to 40 seconds, and then he...

Great white shark sightings and detections are starting to increase along the Cape as the weather heats up and more people head to the ocean. One great white shark — a nearly 11-foot female tagged off the Cape last summer — has already traveled north of Provincetown, according to OCEARCH’s shark tracker. Meanwhile, the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy Sharktivity app has recent shark sightings during the first week of June. A pilot flying out of Chatham Airport during a sightseeing tour last week spotted a great white about a half mile off Marconi Beach in Wellfleet. The Sharktivity app is...

The population of Atlantic great white sharks around Massachusetts ’ Cape Cod peninsula has increased significantly, researchers say. A total of 118 individual great white sharks were detected in 2020 off the coast by the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy , up from only 11 in 2013. And the total number of recorded shark detections in the same period has jumped from 10,803 to 134,631. Scientists say that back in 2010 only three acoustic receivers were used, compared to 65 last year. “It’s important to remember that the receivers can only detect sharks tagged with acoustic transmitters, and there are still...

If any tagged great white sharks make it into Cape Cod waters in time for the Memorial Day weekend, scientists will be ready as the complete array of acoustic receivers has now been deployed. “It feels great to get these acoustic receivers out,” shark scientist Greg Skomal with Massachusetts Marine Fisheries said as he recently set the equipment into position with Megan Winton of the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy. “Shark season!” he added with a grin in the recently posted Atlantic White Shark Conservancy’s video. The Atlantic White Shark Conservancy’s Sharktivity app will soon start to light up with shark...

LOCAL NEWS Great white shark Andromache is heading back to the Cape ahead of Memorial Day The nearly 11-foot shark was tagged off Nantucket Great white shark Andromache, tagged off the Cape last year, is migrating north ahead of the summer. She’s racing back to the Cape before the tourists arrive for Memorial Day weekend. A nearly 11-foot great white shark named Andromache, that was detected last summer off the Cape and Nantucket, is quickly migrating north to her summer home. The sub-adult female that has traveled more than 5,000 miles along the eastern seaboard in five months was close...

The Atlantic White Shark Conservancy has launched an online archive that reveals where hundreds of great white sharks have visited along the Cape each year. The new online tool, called the “White Shark Logbook,” helps people see the historical detection data for tagged white sharks along Cape Cod. The White Shark Logbook provides users with data from 2010 to 2020, while the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy’s Sharktivity app is for real-time sighting and detection data. The new logbook that includes information on 208 individual sharks and 583,092 overall detections gives a breakdown of where the great white sharks have been...