Town managers, public safety officials discuss shark mitigation alternatives

A meeting was held with the Woods Hole Group in Wellfleet to discuss shark mitigation alternatives.

The Atlantic White Shark Conservancy posted about the meeting as town managers and public safety officials from Chatham, Orleans, Eastham, Wellfleet, Truro and Provincetown came together Wednesday to discuss a proposed shark and human mitigation alternatives analysis project.

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The officials were joined by representatives from the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy, the Cape Cod National Seashore, the Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce and Representative Sarah Peake's Chief of Staff.

According to the AWSC, the list of alternatives to be analyzed included:

Tech-based Alternatives
•       Tagging (Acoustic & Satellite)
•       Real-Time Alert (App-based, Alarm-based) 
•       Visual Detection (Drones, Balloons, Spotter Plane, Towers)
•       Remote Detection (Buoy-based Sonar, Artificial Intelligence-Machine Learning)
•       Shark repellents (Magnetic / Electric / Acoustic Deterrent, including Wearable or, Surfboard-Mounted Technology, Orca recordings)
•       Adaptive Camouflage (Boards, Wetsuits)
Barrier-based Alternatives
·      Rigid Plastic Mesh Enclosures
·      Netted Enclosures
·      Bubble 'Nets'
·      Simulated Kelp Forests
·      Magnetic Post Array
Biological-based Alternatives
·      Shark and / or Seal Culling, Indigenous Harvest
·      Seal Contraception
·      (Smart) Drum Lines
·      Chemical Repellants, including substances that mimic the smell of dead sharks to repel sharks and dead seals to repel seals
Human Behavior
·      Risk-based decision making

Now, the group is looking for feedback from the public, with a five-day survey period from February 15 to February 19 for anyone to provide input on alternatives.

Cox Media Group