Shark! 2012 Edition

Fourth of July Weekend, what better time to start the shark thread?

Brody: Larry, the summer is over. You're the mayor of "shark city." These people think you want the beaches open.

Memorable quotes for Jaws

http://www.capecodsharkhunters.com/

June 28, 2012 -
George Breen discovered a 16 foot great white shark during his routine flight this afternoon. The shark was located just north of the Chatham harbor inlet in close proximity to popular swimming beaches. The sharks have returned to the area so swimmers are asked to use caution. Do not swim at dusk or in locations heavily populated by seals. The shark hunters are currently preparing the Ezyduzit for the first tagging expedition of 2012. The story will be fully covered by Channel 5 WCVB on tonight’s evening news. Be sure to check back daily as all of our tagging and sightings will be posted here. Before you hit the beach be sure to hit capecodsharkhunters.com!

Shark spotted off Chatham

By Doug Fraser
dfraser@capecodonline.com
June 30, 2012

CHATHAM — A spotter pilot looking for sharks under a state tagging operation photographed a 12-to-15-foot great white prowling close to seals Thursday in the surf zone near the southern tip of North Beach Island.

George Breen, a pilot for Cape Cod Shark Hunters, photographed the shark in shallow water.

This is the first confirmed great white sighting of the season, Greg Skomal, state Division of Marine Fisheries shark researcher, said.

Great whites prey on the large seal colonies that have collected on Cape and Islands beaches since seal populations rebounded under federal protection laws enacted in the 1970s.

In August, Chatham closed North Beach, North Beach Island and South Beach after numerous great white sightings and reports of attacks on seals. At the time, Skomal said it was unclear if there were more sharks attacking seals, or if there were just more reports with people paying closer attention.

Skomal has spent the past several years working with Capt. Bill Chaprales, his son Nick Chaprales and Breen under a contract with the state to attach satellite and acoustic tags to great whites.

Nauset Beach waters off-limits Saturday after shark sighting

By Jason Cook
jcook@capecodonline.com
July 08, 2012

ORLEANS — A shark sighting off Nauset Beach spurred an evacuation of the water and closed the beach to swimming Saturday afternoon.

The sighting was reported just after 2 p.m., said Orleans Harbormaster Dawson Farber. The great white shark is an estimated 12 to 14 feet long, he said.

"We had everyone exit the water," Farber said.

Shelly Negrotti, who summers in Falmouth but is from Upton, photographed the shark and watched the scene unfold. "I was in the water taking pictures," she said, "and there were two kayaks" an estimated 50 feet from the shore. She said the shark became "attracted" to the blue kayak as the red kayak headed for shore.

One of the kayakers was Walter Szulc Jr., of Manchester, N.H., who told NBC affiliate 7News in Boston that he "got a pretty good glimpse of it."

"So I looked behind me, and that's when I saw the shark; it was pretty much right there," said Szulc in the 7News interview. "It was good-sized, it had a fin sticking out, so I just turned and paddled."

Szulc said the shark was maybe "seven or eight feet" behind him.

18-foot shark spotted off of Chatham

July 29, 2012

Another great white shark has been spotted in the waters off Chatham, this one an 18-footer.

The sighting took place at 11 a.m. Friday, according to a report by the Cape Cod Shark Hunters, a group that seeks to photograph, tag and research sharks.

The shark was tagged and followed for more than five hours as it "moved north along the beach up to the Coast Guard Station north of Nauset Inlet," according to the Cape Cod Shark Hunters.

Meanwhile, a shark seen off Aquinnah, first thought to be a great white, was actually a basking shark, according to state shark expert Greg Skomal. "I'm 95 percent sure," Skomal said. "From what I can tell, it's a basking shark." He said the shape of the dorsal fin, is a good indicator of species.

Nantucket OKs shark policy

By JASON GRAZIADEI
INQUIRER and MIRROR
July 28, 2012

&byline;and MARY ANN BRAGG

&byline2;mbragg@capecodonline.com

NANTUCKET — Nantucket selectmen have endorsed a new beach policy after a supposed shark sighting July 18 at Fisherman's Beach turned out to be a false alarm.

The shark scare briefly closed three popular south shore beaches to swimming, but the sighting was actually an ocean sunfish, or mola mola, John Chisholm, of the Massachusetts Marine Fisheries' shark-research program, said this week.

On Wednesday, the board of selectmen unanimously approved a new policy "regarding shark sightings at lifeguarded beaches."

The policy was implemented at the request of the town administration, the police and the harbormaster's office. Nantucket officials consulted with the Cape Cod National Seashore and the town of Chatham on the wording.

State officials generally defer to municipal harbormasters to make a determination about beach closures but support any efforts to improve public safety, Reginald Zimmerman, assistant press secretary for the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, said Friday.

Now on Nantucket, lifeguards are not required to clear people out of the water if there's a sighting of a shark less than 4 feet long. But, if a shark is feeding, stalking or acting peculiar, they would close the beach no matter the animal's size.

If the shark is inside the swimming area, the closure would end two hours after the last sighting. If it's outside the swimming area, it would end one hour after the last observation, according to the policy.

Also, only sightings from reliable sources — lifeguards, ATV operators, Nantucket police or fire personnel, or sources deemed reliable by state wildlife supervisors — "will be considered verified and confirmed," according to the policy.
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