Cape Cod beach-goers say they're not worried about sharks
CAPE COD - After three people were bitten by sharks in separate attacks in Texas and Florida and sharks were spotted in the waters of the outer Cape in Massachusetts, many beach-goers are taking precautions, but they're not letting sharks ruin their vacations on Cape Cod.
New equipment to help swimmers stay safe
Many swimmers at Cape Cod beaches said they aren't afraid of the sharks; they are just conscious of shark safety.
"I'm personally not afraid of the sharks necessarily, but it is reasonable to be afraid," one beach-goer said.
Shark biologist Greg Skomal, of the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, agreed. "Chance of a shark bite is extremely low, and it is extremely rare. But it has happened and so people need to be cognizant of that."
Earlier this week, Skomal was part of the team from Atlantic White Shark Conservancy that deployed real-time acoustic receivers to track great white sharks.
"They will detect any of our tagged sharks and notify the lifeguards and public safety officials immediately on the beach to the presence of those sharks," he said.
Skomal said it's important to emphasize the receivers only detect tagged white sharks, which will also go up on the Sharktivity app, so folks can see where sharks are spending their time.
"Sometimes they work well. Sometimes they don't. So people need to realize they are not a foolproof system," he said.
Swimmers say they also use common sense
Kara Brown and her old college friends have been coming to the Cape for the past 14 years.
"Just to, like, try to be safe. I mean, we've sees sharks here. We see a lot of seen seals here, too. Obviously, we won't go in the water if we see a a shark, but we always feel pretty safe here," Brown said.
"If were to go swimming, I would just ... you can check the Sharktivity app and just use caution. Don't swim when the seals are out there," said another beach-goer.