Cape shark alerts: Sharktivity app lights up with sightings as peak shark month arrives
Great white sharks were spotted all along Cape Cod this weekend, with shark sightings picking up as the peak shark detection month arrives.
The flurry of shark activity off the Outer Cape can be seen on the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy’s Sharktivity app.
The app has been lighting up in recent days, as pilots spot the apex predators from Chatham all the way up the coast.
“White shark spotted half a mile outside of south inlet to Chatham harbor,” reads a shark sighting report from Sunday afternoon.
“(Shark alert) white shark spotted off of north beach island, ~100 yards offshore,” states another report from Sunday.
Pilots were out tracking the shark activity this weekend, as pilots and researchers often do throughout the summer.
“Beautiful flight along Cape Cod National Seashore. 5 sharks spotted!” Jay Correia tweeted on Sunday, as he posted a pic from the sky.
“Reported 4 @MA_Sharks,” he added. “Almost reported the 5th but we just weren’t certain. Great day to be in the air. The Truro/Wellfleet area seemed like the spot today.”
The MA Sharks account run by shark researcher John Chisholm posted that Newcomb Hollow Beach in Wellfleet was temporarily closed to swimming on Saturday because a tagged white shark was detected.
Then again on Sunday.
“The Town of Wellfleet advises that the water at Newcomb Hollow will be closed to swimming until 2:31 following a ping from the receiver,” MA Sharks tweeted.
The sharks spend the bulk of their time along the Outer Cape — which is where most of the seals are located.
The sharks begin to arrive in late May, and then detections of the tagged sharks pick up in June and ramp up in July. The peak shark detection months are August, September and October.
Last year, August had the most shark detections with 55,954, according to the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy’s logbook. The next highest month was September with 27,453 detections.
from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/3fmBtmd
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