Shark!!!

Sparks fly over new shark sticker



By Mary Ann Bragg
mbragg@capecodonline.com
March 07, 2013

TRURO — This summer's town beach sticker will feature a smiling, friendly-looking shark, thanks to the unanimous approval of the town beach commission.

But Kelly Clark, director of the town's recreation and beach department, worries that it gives the impression that the town isn't taking sharks seriously.
Related Links

   Sharks: Read more about sharks in Cape waters - and where they've been seen

When Clark expressed her opinion about the stickers at a Feb. 26 selectmen's meeting, two board members also said they were worried about the repercussions from the public of using the smiling shark, according to a live stream of the meeting. But by the end of the discussion, the board basically told Clark to lighten up.

The controversy partly grew out of the still-evolving relationship between the volunteer five-member beach commission and the town's newly created recreation and beach department.

I WANT! I WANT! I WANT!!!

It would look great on this:

Odd, it got FARKed and still didn't make the Top Ten.
CC Times must still tally results before Thursday noon.

From the Mail Bag:
Truro's smiling shark logo sends the wrong message

April 04, 2013

Many towns on the Cape have adopted something as representative of their town and/or their history.

Truro seems to feel that a smiling shark is the proper symbol of its town's beach. How sick. How ridiculous. My question to the elected officials: "What in the world are you thinking?"

Who thinks that a shark is cute? Why in the world would a nice Cape Cod town such as Truro want to be associated with sharks in the water? It just makes absolutely no sense.

I think that the only sensible person in Truro's governing body is Kelly Clark, director of the town's recreation and beach department. She is head and shoulders more sensible and smarter by questioning the intelligence and marketing decision of a smiling shark.

Sharks don't smile. There is nothing funny or redeeming about an individual being either killed or terribly mangled by a shark.

The shark beach sticker is being promoted by the Truro beach commission chairman, Gerard Kinahan. He would be very wise in listening to Ms. Clark. The board of selectmen said for Ms. Clark to lighten up. I'd like to tell the selectmen to wise up.

Peter Gryzmolowicz

Orleans
______________

<--- Smiling Shark

<--- Peter and shark

Shark makes return to Cape
By Doug Fraser
dfraser@capecodonline.com
June 08, 2013

The first great white shark confirmed in Massachusetts waters this year was detected off Monomoy on May 28 by a receiver that picked up signals from the animal's acoustic tag, according to the state Division of Marine Fisheries.

The shark, a 13-foot female, was tagged in 2011 by state researchers led by Greg Skomal and biologist John Chisholm. It was also detected in this area last summer, according to a press release from the division on Friday.
Related Links

Sharks: Read more about sharks in Cape waters - and where they've been seen

Skomal has worked the last several years with Capt. Bill Chaprales, his son, Nick Chaprales, and spotter-plane pilot George Breen under a contract with the state to attach satellite and acoustic tags to great whites.

The satellite tags remain with the sharks for months and track distance, depth and environmental conditions. They are pre-programmed to release during the year and transmit data back to researchers.

The acoustic tags send out a pinging noise picked up by about three dozen receivers that are anchored in shallow water off the Cape and Islands. The receivers track the sharks in real time.

Twenty sharks were tagged last summer, and 34 have been tagged since 2009.

The growing population of gray seals on Monomoy and elsewhere on the Cape and Islands draws great whites to these areas. The seals have rebounded since federal protection laws were enacted in the 1970s.

State officials stressed Friday that beachgoers should use common sense and avoid swimming at dawn or dusk, stay close to shore and avoid areas where seals congregate.

Last July, Denver businessman Christopher Myers was bitten by a great white as he swam off Ballston Beach in Truro.

Shark dumped in front of downtown restaurant

By Joshua Balling
and Jason Graziadei
I&M Staff Writers

(Aug. 1, 2013) Shark isn’t on the menu at the Sea Dog Brew Pub, but the downtown restaurant got a big serving of it anyway.

A five-foot shark was dumped at the front door of the South Water Street pub early Thursday morning and was removed by the Department of Public Works.

Jimmy Agnew, the manager of the Sea Dog, said the shark was discovered by cleaners who arrived at the restaurant around 7 a.m. Thursday morning.

“That’s some serious restaurant mafia (expletive),” Agnew said. “So weird.”

Sea Dog employees closed down the pub Wednesday night and exited through the front door around 3 a.m., so the shark must have been dumped sometime after that, he said.

Two people were removed from the Sea Dog in seperate incidents Wednesday night, Agnew said, but he was unsure whether they were responsible for dumping the shark.

Nantucket police Lt. Jerry Adams said the department is investigating the incident, and asked anyone with information to contact NPD at (508) 228-1212.

The shark was identified as a sandbar shark by Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries biologist John Chisholm. The sandbar shark is a protected species under federal law, and anglers are prohibited from keeping them unless they have a valid shark research fishery permit.

DPW employee Hartley Batchelder removed the shark from the Sea Dog's entrance just before 7 a.m. with a front-end loader before disposing of it.

 

Shark closes National Seashore beach

By Patrick Cassidy
pcassidy@capecodonline.com
August 06, 2013

Marconi Beach in South Wellfleet was closed to swimming and town beaches on the Atlantic Ocean side of Wellfleet were limited to wading for about an hour Monday after a confirmed shark sighting.

At about 1 p.m., a shark fin was spotted by multiple visitors about 30 yards off Marconi Beach, Cape Cod National Seashore Chief Ranger Leslie Reynolds said.
Related Links

Visitors and lifeguards watched the fin for about 10 minutes as it moved north along the beach, she said.

"It did stay on top of the water," she said.

 

Shark sighting briefly closes Truro beach

By Cape Cod Times
August 06, 2013

TRURO – Ballston Beach was closed for an hour today due to an unconfirmed shark sighting, according to a beach official.

The reported sighting happened between 11 and 11:30 a.m., said Hannah Gonsalves, the town's assistant beach administrator.

Per protocol, the beach was closed for an hour, she said. The sighting was not confirmed and the beach was re-opened.

As of 3:45 p.m., the beach remained open.

Ballston Beach was where Christopher Myers of Denver was bitten by a great white shark last July. He survived the attack.
 

Shark sighting closes Wellfleet beaches for an hour

By Doug Fraser
August 17, 2013

WELLFLEET – At noon Saturday, Barry Clifford was diving in 40 feet of murky water about a quarter-mile from shore salvaging more artifacts from the wreck of the pirate ship Whydah when a big dark shadow passed overhead.

Thinking it was another diver, he prepared to hand over a heavy bag of artifacts but no one was there.

On the surface, Clifford's son Brandon was exiting the water when he saw the fin and tail of a big shark break the water.

“I was taking off my gear when I saw it surface at the stern (of the boat),” Brandon Clifford said. The crew radioed down to Clifford and he surfaced.

Diver Jeff Spiegel and Brandon Clifford boarded Spiegel's 20-foot skiff and followed the shark as it swam from the dive site toward popular Marconi Beach. Spiegel, who has seen great whites before, identified the shark and estimated it at 16 feet long.

After looking at a photo provided by the divers, state Division of Marine Fisheries shark scientist John Chisholm thought the dorsal fin looked too rounded to be a great white and could be a basking shark.

“That was not a basking shark,” Spiegel said. “Once we got close, he would dive. That tail was freaking big.”

Barry Clifford agreed.

“The distance between the (dorsal) fin and tail was a long way. It was a big damn shark,” Clifford said.

 

Shark spotted feeding off Coast Guard Beach in Eastham

By George Brennan
gbrennan@capecodonline.com
September 15, 2013

EASTHAM – Bruce Langsen was out on Coast Guard Beach looking to capture some early morning photographs when he spotted an alarming sight just 100 yards off shore.

Langsen saw what he believes was a great white shark feeding on a seal. He captured the incident in a photograph that shows a dorsal fin surrounded by blood in the water. He also captured an image of two surfers in the nearby blood pool.

“My son said, `Oh my God, Oh my God,' Langsen said. He looked over and snapped the images.

A ranger for the Cape Cod National Seashore, who declined to give his name, confirmed there was a shark sighting reported by surfers at the beach.

Langsen reported the sighting to the U.S. Coast Guard, who reported it to local authorities.

The park ranger said Coast Guard Beach was closed for about an hour, but when no further sharks were spotted it was reopened.

Great white shark tagged off Chatham


By Mary Ann Bragg
mbragg@capecodonline.com
September 22, 2013

NORTH CHATHAM — A team of state scientists, shark spotters and conservationists tagged the third great white shark of the year Friday afternoon off North Beach.

The shark, a 13-foot female, was named "Weezie," according to Cynthia Wigren of the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy, a Cape-based nonprofit organization that funded the trip.

Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries biologists and shark researchers Gregory Skomal and John Chisholm were part of the expedition, on a boat with Cape Cod Shark Hunters captains Bill and Nick Chaprales. Three donors to the conservancy were on board as well as Wigren. A spotter plane was part of the team, too, Wigren said.

The boat left Chatham at around 7:30 a.m. for an area near Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge but came up with no great white sharks. On a second trip, the boat left Chatham around 2:30 p.m., and during that trip the spotter plane saw the shark and the boat was able to get near it. It was tagged with two types of tracking devices at about 4 p.m., Wigren said.

"She did let us stay with her for a while," Wigren said of the shark's movement after being tagged. The animal was tagged with an acoustic device and another type of tag that records water depth, temperature and position of the animal for several months before popping off for scientists to retrieve.
________________________
Weezie.  

UPDATE: “Katherine” the Great White Shark spotted in the surf off Kitty Hawk


Katherine – a 14-foot-long, 2,300 pound Great White Shark – could be headed to Virginia Beach.

She was tagged by the Marine Research Group, Ocearch, back in August off the coast of Cape Cod in Massachusetts.

This Great White Shark was staying up around the cape – until last week.

Her latest location – off the coast of the Eastern Shore – but if you look at her track, you can see she’s heading southwest.

Great Whites tend to go where the food is, and her course could change at any given moment.

Also, there are already Great White Sharks like Katherine off the Coast of Hampton Roads.

She’s just the only one we can track.

To keep up with Katherine’s wherabouts, CLICK HERE.

  

Truro cancels beach sticker design contest

By Mary Ann Bragg
mbragg@capecodonline.com
March 08, 2014

TRURO — The town Recreation and Beach Department's 2014 vehicle beach sticker design contest was canceled after the town beach commission voted to stick with the smiling, toothy shark from 2013.
_________________________

    

Cape shark safety fliers spur tourism concerns



On a recent Monday morning, Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce CEO Wendy Northcross had just stepped out of a meeting to plan the shark section of next year's travel guide when her phone rang.

It was Richard Delaney, president and CEO of the Center for Coastal Studies in Provincetown, wanting to know if she had seen any of the Cape Cod Great White Shark Safety brochures printed by a consortium of harbormasters and other mostly Lower Cape officials.

At the time, she hadn't. But for some, the brochures landed with a splash, raising concerns that the photographs would sensationalize sharks or take a bite out of business.

"I was told it had a 'Jaws'-esque cover picture," said Northcross. "The reality is, we have sharks, and there has to be some public information campaign. On the flip side, there's concern that sharks will be sensationalized or people will want to go on shark hunts."

After getting a look at the brochure Northcross said it wasn't as bad as she expected.

Concerns over the brochure underscore the delicate balance science, business and public safety officials look to strike on the "damned if you do, damned if you don't" issue of informing the public about the threat of sharks that have been drawn to hunt the area's booming seal population.

The 415,000 brochures were printed with $22,500 from the state Community Innovation Challenge program, which granted the money last year to a group of Cape towns to raise awareness of sharks and educate the public about safe practices in the event of a sighting. Working with the state Department of Transportation, the consortium spent another $15,000 in grant funding on signs alerting beachgoers to the presence of sharks and the threat of rip currents, among other dangers. The signs were placed at beaches on the Outer Cape.

Pair share brush with great white shark in Cape Cod Bay


By Eric Williams
also by Jason Kolnos
ewilliams@capecodonline.com
June 26, 2014

SANDWICH — "This one knew it was an apex predator. It knew that it had no fear."

Those are the words of a man who dangled on the pulpit of a tuna boat, just above a 16- to-18-foot great white shark in Cape Cod Bay on Monday.

Captain Tyler Macallister said his vessel, the F/V Cynthia C, was about 6 miles southwest of Provincetown when the fish showed up for a meet and greet.

"She literally looked right up at us," said Macallister. "They are the blackest onyx eyes you'll ever see."

With first mate Todd Espindola driving the boat, Macallister grabbed a video camera and worked his way out onto the railed platform on the front of the Cynthia C.

That's when Espindola started singing the "Jaws" theme.

"There were a couple times where she rolled around and she looked right at Tyler," recalled Espindola, who lives in Dartmouth. "I got a little nervous for him because he was pretty close to the water, and if she wanted to, she could've come up and taken a bite out of him."

Was Macallister scared?

"Not at all," he said. "Very, very calm, both of us — the shark and me."
____________________
Photos and video in link.

Great white spotted off Nauset Beach

June 29, 2014

ORLEANS — A great white shark was spotted swimming in the water off Nauset Beach on Saturday. It was the first ocean sighting of a great white this year, according to the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy, a nonprofit organization that funds shark research on Cape Cod.

Three conservancy board members and a scientist were in vessel about a quarter mile from the beach when their spotter-plane saw the 12- to 15-foot shark from the air, conservancy Director Cynthia Wigren said.

The crew, who is working with state shark scientist Gregory Skomal to study the great white population in the North Atlantic, identified the shark as female; she has since been named "Ping," Wigren said.

The vessel and spotter plane go out twice a week to search for great whites in the waters off Cape Cod. This was their fourth expedition this year, Wigren said.

Ping was traveling alone and moving very slowly through the water, the director said.

"She was just cruising around very casually and luckily we were able to stay with her for over an hour," Wigren said.

On Monday, two tuna fisherman working the Cape Cod Bay about 6 miles southwest of Provincetown spotted a 16- to 18-foot great white.

According to Skomal, who is a researcher for the Division of Marine Fisheries, great white sightings are far from unusual this time of year.

HAVEN ORECCHIO-EGRESITZ

  

Orleans family captures great white on video

By CAPE COD TIMES
July 22, 2014

EASTHAM — An Orleans family had an up-close encounter with a great white shark while on a boating trip Saturday afternoon off the Nauset Inlet, not far from Coast Guard Beach.

  

Shark wrangler working with NOAA

(July 24, 2014) It’s 10:30 a.m. at Low Beach and Elliot Sudal’s rod is pointing sharply toward the water. The beach is empty. To the casual observer he looks like just another lucky angler. But unlike your typical surfcaster, on the other end of Sudal’s line this breezy Wednesday morning is an 8-foot, 1-inch sandbar shark: the largest Sudal has ever hooked off the shores of Nantucket.

“People don’t realize there are so many sharks here,” he said. “You can’t go in the water here and not be a mile away from a shark, they’re here. People don’t like to think about it but there are only like five to 10 deaths from shark attacks every year, and that’s worldwide. Considering how many people go in the water around the world, your chances are pretty slim, but it’s such a brutal way to go I think that’s why (it gets so much coverage).”
-

Shark sighting off Chatham prompts swimming warning

CHATHAM — Town harbor officials posted "No Swimming" signs Friday on remote parts of South Beach after a 12- to 14-foot shark was sighted Thursday in protected waters near there.

The area is south of lifeguarded beaches, but boaters often land there with passengers who jump into the water "all over the place," Chatham Parks and Recreation Director Dan Tobin said Saturday.

"We certainly discourage them from swimming in that area," Tobin said.

State Division of Marine Fisheries shark researcher John Chisholm, after learning of the shark's presence, was able to document it Thursday while on the town harbormaster's boat, in cooperation with shark spotters in a plane, according to Atlantic White Shark Conservancy President Cynthia Wigren.

The nonprofit conservancy, which is based in Orleans, posted photographs and video of the shark Thursday and Friday on its Facebook page.

Chisholm was not available for comment on Saturday.

Chisholm and fellow state shark expert Greg Skomal have embarked this year on a five-year population study of the sharks off Cape Cod that will establish a database of unique markings to identify white sharks in the future. This summer's study was funded by the conservancy.

The researchers have been out 19 times this summer off Chatham, Wigren said, cataloging 14 great whites so far, one of which had been tagged previously.

Wigren said the study is expected to continue into mid-October.

Great white sharks are drawn to the area because of the thousands of gray seals that gather on the isolated beaches.

Plymouth official: Great white bites kayaker's boat


By CAPE COD TIMES
September 03, 2014

PLYMOUTH - Two women were kayaking off Manomet Point on Wednesday when a great white shark attacked one of their boats, according to the assistant harbormaster in Plymouth.

The women, who are in their 20s, were in two separate kayaks when a 12- to 14-foot great white shark swam up from below and bit the bottom of one of them, the assistant harbormaster said.

Neither woman was injured in the attack, which happened about just before 6 p.m., according to the harbormaster's office.

The shark swam away and the women held onto their kayaks until the harbormaster arrived and took them to shore.

The Division of Marine Fisheries confirmed that the shark was a great white by the tooth fragments and bite radius left at the bottom of one of the kayaks, according to Massachusetts Environmental Police spokeswoman Amy Mahler.

The assistant harbormaster said that it is rare for a great white shark to be so close to shore.

The attack remains under investigation by the Massachusetts Environmental Police.

Great white shark named Katharine tracked to Wellfleet Harbor

By ETHAN GENTER
egenter@capecodonline.com
October 08, 2014

WELLFLEET — Katharine, a 14-foot, 2,300-pound great white shark pinged off Duck Creek, near Wellfleet Harbor around 5:45 p.m. Tuesday, according to Ocearch, a nonprofit group that tracks sharks.

Katharine, named after Cape Codder Katharine Lee Bates, author of "America the Beautiful," has made her way up the East Coast since early September, where she pinged off the coast of North Carolina. She pinged off Monomoy Island and Nantucket on Oct. 2 before heading farther east into the Atlantic Ocean. On Oct. 5 she transmitted off the National Seashore and has since voyaged into Cape Cod Bay. She is the only shark being tracked by Ocearch in the past month that has pinged in the bay.

The tracked sharks have a spot tag attached to their dorsal fin, explained Chris Fischer, the founding chairman and expedition leader at Ocearch. When Katharine's dorsal fin comes above the water the tag pings to a satellite and gives her location. Sharks need to surface for at least 90 seconds to determine their location.

Fischer was unsure if the ping was correct at first as sharks don't often make the trip into the bay but said it wasn't totally unheard of. But after contacting state shark researcher Greg Skomal, Fischer confirmed the transmission.

"There is a large seal colony in the region," he said "It's a very dynamic area."

Katharine, who has been tagged for about a year, has shown researchers what a full great white migration can be. Wellfleet is the northernmost ping for the 14-footer. She has gone as far south as Key West, Florida and traveled up into the Gulf of Mexico before returning north. Since being tagged she has traveled over 8,000 miles.

Katharine's trip back to Cape Cod indicates she is not yet a fully mature shark, Fischer said. Pregnant sharks have an 18-month gestation period so Katharine would not return to Cape Cod year after year if she was mature, he said.

Since 2007, Fischer estimates Ocearch has tagged a couple of hundred sharks. Skomal tagged a 17-foot shark off Chatham Monday, for the 15th tagged shark of the season, according to the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy.
_________________________
"Kate" to her friends.

Experts: Great white sharks off Cape may be expanding turf


By Doug Fraser
dfraser@capecodonline.com
October 09, 2014

WELLFLEET — The first great white shark to be tracked in Cape Cod Bay likely spent the better part of a day or two in Wellfleet Harbor before heading toward the Upper Cape on Wednesday.

Katharine, a 2,300-pound, 14-foot-long great white, has traveled more than 8,100 miles since she was fitted with three electronic tracking devices by shark researcher Greg Skomal and the crew of the research vessel Ocearch off Chatham in August 2013.

A sophisticated tag that broadcasts her location when she surfaces "pinged" three times in the past two days, placing her within a few feet of the town pier Tuesday afternoon and in the middle of the harbor near Great Island by Wednesday afternoon.

Although there is a 2-mile margin of error in the actual location for these particular tags, Skomal, of the state Division of Marine Fisheries, said multiple signals coming from the same approximate location mean it is more likely than not that Katharine was in the harbor.

This summer, Skomal identified 56 individual great white sharks, tagging 15 of them, as part of a scientific study to determine the size of both the local population that comes each year to feast on Cape Cod seals and the greater population in the northwest Atlantic. With so many sharks gathered in the waters around the Monomoy islands off Chatham, Skomal said Katharine's move into Cape Cod Bay may be a sign that Chatham is becoming overcrowded by shark standards and some are exploring less crowded hunting grounds to the north and into the bay.

- Use Ocearch.org's tracking map for tagged sharks -

Although there have been sightings in the bay, Katherine is the first to be documented, thanks to her tag.

While Monomoy's gray seal population went from just a few individuals 30 years ago to more than 15,000 spotted in just one day, other parts of the Cape, such as Jeremy Point at the mouth of Wellfleet Harbor, can also be shark magnets with hundreds, if not thousands, of seals hauled up on the beach sunning themselves.

"They will go where the seals are," Skomal said of the sharks. "We've seen more and more seals piling up on that western shore (of Cape Cod). It doesn't surprise us that there are more shark sightings there."

Katharine's Smart Position and Temperature (SPOT) tag downloads environmental data and position through a series of signals to a satellite. Her position can be calculated by measuring changes in the frequency of a signal emitted by the tag. The tag is bolted to her dorsal fin, with the antenna protruding above it. But the signal works only if the shark's dorsal fin is out of the water for at least three seconds. Skomal and the Ocearch crew fitted four Cape Cod great whites with a suite of electronic instruments, including SPOT tags, in 2012 and 2013. They are tracked on the Ocearch Global Shark Tracker website.

In mid-September, Katharine was off North Carolina but swam steadily north, arriving off Nantucket on Sept. 27. She stopped in at the Monomoy islands, the largest gray seal colony in the U.S., for a couple of days before heading due east 120 miles to Georges Bank. By Sunday, she was off Marconi Beach in Wellfleet before heading around Provincetown to arrive on the bay side of Wellfleet on Tuesday.

On a morning patrol Wednesday, Wellfleet Harbormaster Michael Flanagan talked over the engine noise and the thudding of the hull against a rough chop, saying there have been a lot of fish in the harbor and seals were chasing menhaden, bluefish and other schools around in the shallows.

"I've heard of people spotting them on Billingsgate Shoals this summer," said Shellfish Constable Andrew Koch. It didn't surprise him that Katharine came inside the harbor. Basking sharks, even whales, have been spotted there and it was only a matter of time before they started prospecting, he said.

"Seems to me they are like coyotes. You get more and more and they get (daring)," Koch said.

Skomal said recent evidence points to a possible expansion of range as a growing number of white sharks visit Cape Cod. With more than 50 sharks tagged since 2009, Skomal shifted his effort somewhat this past summer, using underwater video equipment to record identifying marks and scars to create a database of individual great whites.

"The number of scars, bites, rakes, deformities show us that their interactions with each other are not pleasant," Skomal said.

By comparing how many of those identified this summer return next year, he can use a mathematical formula to estimate the number of sharks that frequent Cape waters and possibly use that data to help get an overall population size.

Skomal believes just a handful may be residents, setting up shop at seal hot spots and remaining for the summer.

"Most are transients. Many we saw this summer, we didn't see again (after videotaping them)," Skomal said. Following up on sightings off Provincetown, spotter pilot Wayne Davis saw four great whites heading around the tip Monday. Skomal theorizes that individuals may be on the move after getting squeezed out of good hunting areas.

If so, Katharine, who left the Wellfleet area by midafternoon Wednesday and was located off Dennis by 3:45 p.m., is getting to know the possibilities for meals in Cape Cod Bay, and maybe Wellfleet Harbor.

"Isn't that cool," said Wellfleet Beach Administrator Suzanne Grout Thomas. "She's one of my favorite sharks. I followed her all winter long (on the Ocearch site)."

But it's not all about fascination. As beach administrator, Thomas would like to see an array of buoys that can alert town officials and beachgoers when a tagged shark is in the area, in real time. The town did buy one buoy but it has had some technical difficulties, she said.

"It's a reasonable investment to have a number of them, on the (Atlantic) side and the (Cape Cod Bay) side," Thomas said. "That will be the answer, an early warning."

Follow Doug Fraser on Twitter: @dougfrasercct.