Swimmers pulled from water at 2 Mass. beaches due to sharks this week
The waters of two Massachusetts beaches were cleared of swimmers over the past week following two unconfirmed sightings of white sharks off the coast, according to the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy.
The Chatham-based shark research group catalogued the two unconfirmed sightings on its interactive shark-tracking app, Sharktivity .
The first sighting was reported at Surf Beach Drive in Falmouth at around 4 p.m. on Friday, July 18, according to the app. Lifeguards cleared people from the water after a six-foot-long white shark was seen in the water.
The second such sighting was at Cisco Beach on Nantucket at around 2:49 p.m. on Thursday, July 24. Swimmers were pulled from the water as a large shark was seen in the water.
These were among four unconfirmed sightings, which contributed to a total number of 21 shark sightings since July 18. The week before, there were 14 shark sightings, one unconfirmed sighting and three instances of shark predation.
Half of the confirmed sightings were detected around Chatham, with six of these 10 sightings spotted around South Monomoy Island, and one tagged shark among the four sightings around North Beach Island.
The conservancy has tagged and named white sharks typically seen swimming around the Cape's coasts. These acoustic tags transmit data from shark detections in real time, with the results appearing on Sharktivity.
Baobob, an 11-foot-long male white shark initially spotted around the Cape off Wellfleet weeks ago , was among the sharks detected around North Beach Island, the conservancy catalogued. He swam off the island's east coast at around 8:46 a.m. on Friday, July 25.
Along with a few appearances by tagged shark Wannabe , a shark that shares the name of an Al Pacino gangster film was also passing through the Cape's waters.
Scarface, a 12-foot-long white shark, was detected swimming near Nauset Beach in Eastham at around 8:29 p.m. on Wednesday, July 23, according to the app. The last time he was seen swimming around the Cape was off the east coast of South Monomoy Island at around 1:24 p.m. on Sept. 5, 2024.
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