Cape Cod Beaches Are Still Not Clear of Summer Sharks

Labor Day is long past. Cape Cod traffic has eased considerably. Year-round Cape residents are settling in for a quiet winter season free of tourists who've returned home until next spring.

Well, most tourists.

Atlantic white sharks begin arriving on Cape Cod in the spring, usually in May, ahead of most human tourists and linger through the end of October. It is then that the sharks head south to Florida, their winter home, where the water is warm.

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Lower Cape News (LCN) says, "Cape Cod has become one of the white shark (aka Carcharodon carcharias) hot spots in the world." LCN says, "Peak shark activity happens in the late summer and early fall, with apex ocean predators following their preferred prey, the seal."

The arrival of sharks off the Cape each summer draws media and tourists alike. Beaches are closed when sharks are in the water.

The Atlantic Shark Conservancy says, "Sharks are not hunting for humans," but the Conservancy says, "The increase in local abundance of white sharks is a conservation success story, yet the public safety concern posed by a growing number of white sharks off our coast is undeniable."

Over 60 sharks were detected or observed off the Cape in late August 2024.

Author Greg Skomal, a marine biologist with the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries told Public Broadcasting Station WGBH, "People don't usually think about sharks when they think about the Massachusetts coastline, but we get at least a dozen seasonal species that are seasonal visitors here."

"People do focus a little bit on the great white shark, which occur in fairly sizable numbers off our outer Cape beaches and have generated a lot of attention," Skomal said.

However, he said that the probability of being bitten by a shark is "extremely low."

It's almost time for the sharks to go home for the winter and for you to enjoy the beach once more – as long as you have a heated scuba suit and fur-lined flippers.