Shark sightings have been on the increase on the Cape and last week Maine recorded its first death by a shark in the 200 years of record keeping.   A 63-year old woman swimming near her summer home on Bailey Island was killed by a great white according to scientist that identified the type of shark by a tooth fragment.

If your vacationing on the Cape this summer you might not want to watch Jaws, Jaws 2, Jaws 3, or even Jaws: The Revenge before going into the water.  Shark sightings off the Cape coast have been increasing for the last five + years.  Expects say that the resurgence of the seal population has led to more and more sharks relocating to the Northeast coastal waters.

Shark attacks are not common but are a wake up call to always be aware of your surroundings when in the ocean.  A 26-year old man from Revere was killed by a shark off the coast of Newcomb Hollow Beach in Wellfleet in 2018.   Prior to that the first and last fatal shark attack in Mass was reported to have happened in 1937.

On Saturday off the same beach the Revere man was killed in 2018, a great white was spotted and photographed from a Mass State Police Helicopter 50-yards off the coast of Newcomb Hollow Beach.  The video below of the sighting was posted on the Mass State Police Facebook page.

 

The Massachusetts State Police Air Wing provides an important service every summer in helping patrol the waters off Cape Cod beaches for Great White sharks in the vicinity of swimmers. On Saturday, in the early afternoon, the crew of MSP helicopter Air 4 observed two Great Whites about 50 yards off shore at Newcomb Hollow Beach in Wellfleet. The flight crew advised local police of the location of the two sharks. Swimmers were already out of the water because of an earlier sighting that morning, but based on MSP Air 4’s additional confirmed sightings, the order to stay out of the water was extended. This video, taken by Air 4, shows one of the Great Whites, estimated to be about 10 feet long.

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