Shark Attacks on Seals Lead to Indefinite Swim Ban at MA Beach
Shark sightings off the coast of southern Massachusetts have grown so numerous that officials have made the "unprecedented" move of banning swimming at Great Point, the northernmost tip of Nantucket Island.
The decision was handed down by the Trustees of Reservations and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service after sharks were spotted attacking several seals in the past week alone. The Trustees were made aware of five separate shark attacks on seals—and those were the only ones observed by witnesses.
One incident in particular was caught on video from a boat on Saturday, in which a shark can be seen attacking a seal in the water and biting it clear in half. As the video description states, the disturbing content is not for the faint of heart. And as you can see, the shark was mere feet from the shore during the attack.
"Those videos are pretty troubling and no human could survive that, we know that," Diane Lang, the Trustees of Reservations stewardship manager, told Nantucket Current. "The policy is in place now. We're telling our visitors no swimming at Great Point. I was in touch with U.S. Fish & Wildlife and they're in full agreement."
As part of the Coskata-Coatue Wildlife Refuge, Great Point isn't known as a recreational beach and locals tend to use it for fishing and beach driving. But as Lang points out, visitors can be naive to their surroundings and with such clear and present danger, it's obviously better to err on the side of caution.
"We saw people jumping in the water over the Fourth of July," Lang said.
Swimming had previously been prohibited at the very tip of Great Point. However, that was due to the rip current, not sharks. And before the recent rash of attacks, swimmers were asked to stay out of the water for two hours in the event of a confirmed shark sighting.
Shark attacks on humans are extremely rare and none have occurred on Nantucket. And with the new policy, hopefully it will stay that way.
The swimming ban comes amid a growing concentration of great white sharks off the nearby coast of Cape Cod, which is now the first documented shark hotspot in the North Atlantic and believed to possibly be the largest in the world. The sharks are most likely attracted to the area by the skyrocketing seal population. Though, since the recent rash of attacks, seals have all but disappeared from Great Point.