ORLEANS, Mass. — December 4, 2012 — Ten Cape towns and Nantucket are banding together to find out more about the great white sharks cruising their shorelines.
Officials hope the state will approve a $262,500 grant to expand a tagging program and create signs and brochures to warn and educate beachgoers.
The proposal is part of a regional initiative to address public safety in the face of burgeoning seal and shark populations and an attack on a Denver man by a great white shark last summer.
"We don't know a lot about how they behave, where they go. Are they responding to weather systems, barometric pressure, who knows?" Orleans Harbormaster Dawson Farber said. He moderated the first regional shark meeting in October and will be in charge of town beaches this summer following the retirement of longtime Parks and Beaches Superintendent Paul Fulcher.
Orleans, which has the busiest beach south of the Cape Cod National Seashore's Marconi Beach in Wellfleet, is the lead town in applying for what is called a Community Innovation Challenge Grant. These grants are overseen by the state Executive Office of Administration and Finance and are intended to improve regional services through innovative projects. Last year was the first round of grants and $4 million was awarded to 27 programs out of a total 100 applicants.
Although there has been evidence of increasing shark activity over the past decade, the problem came to the forefront with the tagging of five great white sharks off Chatham in 2009 by state Division of Marine Fisheries shark scientist Greg Skomal. Last summer, Skomal, working with Sandwich fisherman Bill Chaprales, tagged 17 great whites. There is little indication, scientists say, that the seals, and the sharks that feed on them, have hit their peak populations. Skomal said he believes it likely more sharks are coming to the Cape every year.
Over the past few years, Skomal has moored 21 receivers in relatively shallow coastal waters off Chatham, Orleans, Wellfleet, Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket and Cuttyhunk. The devices are capable of receiving the individualized signals emitted by the acoustic tags fastened to 23 great white sharks over the past three years. Researchers must travel by boat to the receivers to download recorded information on which shark was detected and the date and time.
Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times