July 13, 2021 — While you’re enjoying the beach, something unexpected could be lurking close by.
“Just on the other side of here, I’ve encountered multiple sharks. [You have?] Yep, you know, eight to ten feet of water. [Like while you’re just out working?] Yep, the last one I encountered was in under eight feet of water off the beach just on the other side,” Capt. Kelly Zimmerman of the Got Stryper Fishing Charter tells us.
Kelly has been a captain for the Got Stryper Fishing Charter out of Chatham, Massachusetts on Cape Cod for six years now.
Early on, people who went fishing with Captain Kelly would catch big striped bass. Not so much now.
“The seal population has increased and the more seals that I see, the less of those big bass are sticking around,” Zimmerman explained.
He’s right. The seal population has increased noticeably, thanks in part to the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972.
More seals comes more sharks, most notably great white sharks that average about fifteen feet in length.