You have been reading recently about the tough times that have befallen Cape Cod rental markets. Now the Cape is getting some news that may make some vacationers uncomfortable—there are sharks in the water, lots of them. Susannah Sudborough reports for the Boston Globe:
Apparently New Englanders aren’t the only species that loves Cape Cod — white sharks do, too.
A new study from the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy, UMass Dartmouth, and the state fisheries division found that the Cape is one of the biggest hotspots for white sharks in the world.
The study estimated that around 800 white sharks visited the waters off Cape Cod between 2015 and 2018. This is the first estimate of white shark abundance in the western North Atlantic Ocean, the study said.
“It’s only a small segment of the population, but previously we knew nothing about numbers of white sharks here in this part of the world,” longtime white shark researcher Greg Skomal told NBC10 Boston.
To come up with their estimate, the researchers created a new statistical model that accounted for shark migratory patterns. They then utilized over 2,800 videos from 137 research trips to track the sharks and their movements.
The researchers ultimately identified nearly 400 individual sharks, and using the new model, they estimated that the actual number of sharks that visited Cape Cod during the four-year study was around 800.
Cape Cod’s pristine beaches attract an increasing number of white sharks. The Atlantic White Shark Conservancy is working to better understand their behavior and find ways to monitor their locations to help keep the sharks and beachgoers safely apart. pic.twitter.com/aG3RKKIDfb
— CNN (@CNN) July 28, 2023
The study says its findings will aid white shark conservation efforts because researchers now have a baseline by which to evaluate the current white shark population.
White sharks are an endangered species, with a world population believed to be fewer than 3,500. The biggest threats to their survival are shark hunting by humans and fishing gear entanglements.
White sharks come to Cape Cod to hunt seals in the summer, but this was not always the case, according to Scientific American. There has been a surge over the last decade as the area’s gray seal population rebounded with the advent of the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972, the magazine wrote. Before the act was passed, seals were frequently culled by fishermen.
Cape Cod now joins the ranks of white shark hotspots such as South Africa, central California, Mexico’s Guadalupe Island, and Australia’s Neptune Islands, Scientific American reported.
Action Line: Is all that information about “sharktivity” a good thing? You can have too much. You wouldn’t want the thoughts of Jaws out in the water ruining your family’s Cape Cod vacation. The same is true of investing. Too much information can sometimes be a bad thing. It can play with your emotions, even when the facts are on your side. Let’s talk.
