Apparent jump in Cape Cod Bay shark sightings being investigated

ORLEANS, Mass. — All of the great white sightings on the outer Cape have no doubt been captivating a lot of attention, but it’s the encounters happening inside Cape Cod Bay this summer that have lifelong fishermen and experts really talking.

The fishermen who are docked along Rock Harbor have spent most of their lives on Cape Cod Bay -- in the past they’d encounter a great white shark every once in a while, but this summer they say it’s happening almost every day. Experts are now working to find out why.

“A big thing we are seeing here in the bay they’re all juveniles they’re small sharks,” Brett Wilson from Hindsight Sportfishing said. “They’re not seal eaters, they’re not big enough to be seal eaters.”

Small is a relative term for great whites. These sharks might not be making the movies, but they’re still 7-10 feet long.

“There’s too many circumstances this year where they are ripping the fish off the hooks,” Wilson said.

The frequent shark sightings are a source of excitement for those on board Wilson’s charter tours, but they’re also forcing him to exercise more caution than ever before.

“I won’t swim anymore I have people that ask can we go swimming it’s not a thing,” he said. “What used to be in the past ‘sure, you can jump over the side of the boat go for a swim.’”

Just a few weeks ago a fellow fisherman docked here on Rock Harbor captured incredible footage of a great white leaping out on the water near Billingsgate Shoal.

The new pattern unfolding in Cape Cod Bay this summer is even on the radar of shark expert Dr. Greg Skomal with the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries.

“We’ve known for years that the seals will attack fish being reeled in by fisherman it’s one of the complaints of a lot of fisherman now the sharks seem to be picking up on that as well as an easy meal,” Skomal said.

Skomal said the reports of sharks going after lines on Cape Cod appear to be unprecedented. He wonders if the sharks could be spreading out because of competition.

“High density of sharks, competitive nature they’re going to move out of an area where there’s a dominant shark. some of that involves going into Cape Cod Bay,” he said.

Wilson and the others who continue to witness these great whites say none of what they’ve seen in the bay have been tagged.

“Now it’s in your head, something you’d never think about before,” Wilson said. “It’s coming it’s going to happen we know it’s going to happen that somebody is eventually going to get killed over this.”

Dr. Skomal said he and other experts are working with the University of Massachusetts to get a count on the amount of great whites in the waters off the Cape. They’re also working to see how that is changing from year to year.

He expects great white sightings will continue to be a regular occurrence through September.

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