Saving Seafood

Meeting scheduled to discuss recent shark sightings off Massachusetts coast

July 18, 2019 — According to the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy’s “Sharktivity” app, dozens of shark sightings have been reported off Cape Cod in the last month.

Greg Skomal, a shark biologist with the Division of Marine Fisheries, tweeted Tuesday that the agency tagged four white sharks, bringing its total to a dozen this season.

‘We haven’t tagged this many this early, so it’s been a banner year,” he said.

While this means it’s potentially easier to track the sharks and know just how many are new to the area or not, it still has beachgoers on edge.

On Wednesday, ATI Systems of Boston and the Wellfleet Concerned Citizens Coalition are presenting to the Barnstable County Board of Regional Commissioners.

The groups have scheduled educational presentations on “Cape Cod seal and shark-related issues.”

Read the full story at WPRI

Shark-infested waters: The ‘new normal’ on Cape Cod

July 3, 2019 — Lifeguards on Tuesday spotted a shark near the shore on Cape Cod and shut down a Wellfleet beach for an hour — the “new normal” for the popular tourist destination, less than a year after the first fatal shark attack there since 1936.

A great white shark lingered 40 yards off Marconi Beach in Wellfleet on Tuesday afternoon, according to the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy. Lifeguards closed the beach for one hour after the sighting — during one of the busiest Cape weeks of the year.

“It’s the new normal now,” said Tom King, a shark expert from Scituate. “For generations, everyone’s gone down to the beach and frolicked around in the salt water, going in and out of the water without any concerns. There were no sharks here.

“Now, we have company,” he added.

On Monday, at least 11 white sharks were spotted by the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy research team on Cape Cod Bay. Researcher Greg Skomal tagged two of the sharks — a 9-footer and a 10-footer — the first sharks tagged this year.

Then on Tuesday, the senior biologist at the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries tagged a 12 1/2-foot white shark about a mile off Nauset Beach in Orleans.

Read the full story at The Boston Herald

Sharks and seals: A success story on Cape Cod

July 1, 2019 — Eighteen years ago, charter boat captain Joseph Fitzback and his customers held on tight as a 14-foot great white stripped a striped bass off a fishing line, then rocked the boat with a couple of exploratory bumps, 2 miles off Chatham’s Lighthouse Beach.

Television crews and reporters lined up to interview Fitzback, but as the numbers of seals, and the sharks pursuing them, have increased, such interactions are almost commonplace. In a relatively short time the Cape has evolved from ocean playground to wilderness experience, and today Fitzback’s story might get little more than a few hits on social media.

By now, the first of perhaps hundreds of great whites, the largest such aggregation on the East Coast, have returned to the Cape for the summer from their winter grounds to the south. They are hunting a gray seal population that has exploded from almost zero in the 1970s to nearly 30,000, possibly as many as 50,000, today, depending on the science you choose to believe.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

New Study to Aims to Keep Beachgoers Safe From Great Whites

June 20, 2019 — Researchers on Cape Cod are launching a new study focused on the hunting and feeding habits of the region’s great white sharks following last year’s two attacks on humans.

Greg Skomal, a state marine biologist leading the effort, says the hope is to contribute critical information to the ongoing debate over how to keep Cape beachgoers safe.

The new research calls for placing sophisticated tags on sharks to track their swimming speed, depth and body position in the water.

Read the full story at NBC Boston

New study to examine feeding habits of Cape Cod great whites

June 19, 2019 — Researchers on Cape Cod are launching a new study focused on the hunting and feeding habits of the region’s great white sharks following last year’s two attacks on humans, including the state’s first fatal one in more than 80 years.

The hope is that the work, which starts in the coming days, contributes critical information to the ongoing debate over how to keep Cape beachgoers safe, said state marine biologist Greg Skomal, who has been studying the region’s great whites for years and is leading the new effort.

“If we can figure out how, where and when these sharks are attacking seals, we may be able to see if there is a pattern or any predictability to it,” he said. “That’s really useful information for someone trying to manage their beach and enhance public safety. If there are hot spots that can be identified, we certainly want to share that information with the public.”

Cape Cod officials have been wrestling with how to respond to public concern in the aftermath of last year’s attacks. A New York man was badly mauled by a shark last August off a beach in Truro but survived. Then weeks later a Massachusetts man was killed by a shark while boogie boarding in nearby Wellfleet.

Read the full story at The Gloucester Daily Times

Making Catch-And-Release Safer For Sharks

June 10, 2019 — Say the word “shark” to a New Englander these days and the mind jumps straight to great white sharks, which have seen a remarkable increase here in recent years.

But great whites aren’t the only sharks around. And it turns out we know little about many of the sharks that frequent New England’s waters.

Now there’s a new effort to understand how catch-and-release fishing of sandbar sharks impacts their survival.

“We want to know if the catch and release processes is harming the fish in any way, and if it is, we want to work with fishermen to try to figure out what is it about the capture event that is causing the sharks to die,” Jeff Kneebone told Living Lab Radio.

Kneebone is a fisheries scientist with the Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life at the New England Aquarium and much of his research focuses on figuring out where sharks are and what they’re doing as they move around the region.

Twenty years ago, Sandbar sharks had a large population off the mid-Atlantic coast. When the population dropped, it became illegal to catch and keep them. But fishermen still are allowed to pursue them using catch-and-release fishing.

Given the sharks’ susceptibility to population declines, Kneebone wants to know more about what happens after they are caught and released. When they die, why?

“Is it how long they’re being fought? Is it how they’re being handled when they’re landed on the beach? Is it where they’re being hooked?” he said.

Read the full story at WCAI

Researchers to Begin New Study on White Shark Behavior

June 6, 2019 — The Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries five-year white shark population study is nearing completion and scientists will begin a new wave of research off Cape Cod this summer.

Since 2014, research led by state marine biologist Dr. Greg Skomal has been conducted to get a more accurate picture of how many sharks spend their summers in waters off the Cape.

Results from the five-year study are expected to be released soon.

The Atlantic White Shark Conservancy, in collaboration with DMF, will start several projects that are focused on getting a better understanding of the predatory behavior of white sharks in the region.

“The big focus now is to get better information to inform public safety practices,” said Megan Winton, a staff scientist with the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy.

“The best way we can do that at this point is to learn more about what these animals are doing in the waters off of the coast.”

The research conducted over the next five years will be a continuation of the previous population study.

“Now the focus is to really get as many tags on animals as we can to get a better idea of what the population is doing as a whole off of our coast,” Winton said.

Atlantic White Shark Conservancy CEO Cynthia Wigren said it is critical to get a better idea of hunting and feeding behavior from a public safety perspective.

“If sharks are feeding at certain times of the day or stages of the tide, for example, we can use that information to identify periods when the risk of interactions between sharks and recreational water users may be highest,” Wigren said.

Read the full story at CapeCod.com

Sound barrier to chase seals, prevent shark attacks debated

May 29, 2019 — A Cape Cod company has proposed building a sonic barrier around the region’s beaches to chase away seals and prevent shark attacks.

Deep Blue LLC presented its idea Wednesday at a public meeting in Barnstable. It sparked a broader debate about addressing the region’s massive seal population.

The company envisions a system of underwater audio devices that will emit a sound unpleasant to seals.

Owners Willy Planinshek and Kevin McCarthy say that if the seals leave the area, the great white sharks that eat them will follow.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

The Shark Attack That Changed Cape Cod Forever

May 15, 2019 — Last summer, Arthur Medici went surfing off the coast of Cape Cod. He never made it back alive. As the region’s shores increasingly become a hotbed for great white sharks, is it finally time to be afraid to go in the water, for real?

Isaac Rocha sat in class trying to concentrate on his schoolwork, but his mind was somewhere else. It was a Friday afternoon in mid-September 2018, and although the academic year had just begun, the 16-year-old Everett High School junior and novice bodyboard surfer was already longing for the weekend. Suddenly, his cell phone buzzed, and he quietly slid it out of his pocket, careful not to alert his teacher. The text screen lit up.

“Yo, what’s up?” it read. “What are you doing?”

Rocha smiled and quickly typed a reply: “I’m in school.”

Seconds later, his phone vibrated again.

“Yo, let’s go to Cape Cod. We’re gonna grab a hotel and go surfing. Go home and grab your stuff and be ready because I’m coming to your house.”

The message came from Arthur Medici, a 26-year-old college student from Brazil who attended Rocha’s church and had known him for years. When the final school bell rang, releasing students like a pack of greyhounds at the track, Rocha hopped onto his motorcycle and raced home. Just as he was gathering his board, wetsuit, and a fresh set of clothes, he heard a knock on the front door.

“Come on out!” Medici shouted excitedly.

Moments later, the two friends climbed into Medici’s black Nissan Altima and began the long trek to the outer edge of Cape Cod. Stuck in bumper-to-bumper Friday-afternoon traffic, they searched for Jack Johnson songs on the radio and caught up on the week, chatting about work, school, and life. Medici had recently asked Rocha’s sister, Emily, to marry him, and Rocha was thrilled his friend would soon become family.

Read the full story at Boston Magazine

MASSACHUSETTS: Cape Cod towns get funds for shark precautions

April 5, 2019 — Ahead of another influx of tourists that comes with summer on Cape Cod, state officials are showering six outer Cape towns with public safety funds following increased shark sightings and a deadly attack last September.

The Executive Office of Public Safety announced Tuesday that $383,000 was being allocated to help buy emergency call boxes in areas where cell service is limited, satellite phones for lifeguards, and all-terrain vehicles that can more quickly reach patients on the beach with specialized medical equipment.

In a press release that didn’t mention the word “shark,” officials said the funds were for “municipal preparedness and response programs.” Sen. Julian Cyr of Truro said called it a “good first step” coming ahead of summer and Rep. Sarah Peake of Provincetown said the funding arrived with “lightning speed.”

“Our administration is pleased to provide funds to address critical infrastructure equipment needs as it relates to the safety of all Massachusetts residents and visitors,” Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito said in a statement. “We are grateful to our partners at the local level and in the Legislature for continuing to work together with us to address this important issue.”

Arthur Medici, 26, was killed by a great white shark while boogie boarding last September along a stretch of Cape Cod that’s been a tourist destination for decades, attracting tens of thousands of visitors each summer. It was the first fatal shark attack since 1936. State officials responded to the late-summer attack off Wellfleet by encouraging beachgoers to follow posted warnings and stay in shallow water. Since then, talks about public safety have picked up.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times