Swimmers Ordered Out Of The Water After Shark Sighting Off Wellfleet Beach

WELLFLEET (CBS) -- Swimmers were ordered out of the water at Wellfleet's Marconi Beach Tuesday afternoon after a great white shark was spotted.

The sighting happened at about 12:15 p.m. The Cape Cod National Seashore said a lifeguard saw the shark about 40 feet offshore and alerted authorities by radio.

"I'm a swimmer, I don't just stay on the beach so it definitely freaked me out," one girl said. "I definitely saw something that was not a seal."

All beachgoers were told to clear the water, as is standard protocol for shark sightings.

"We got here, there was a lot of people on the beach. There was nobody in the water and we thought that was a little odd. Then actually at some point, duh -- had there been a shark sighting?" one woman said.

The beach reopened about an hour later.

On Monday, researchers spotted 11 white sharks in Cape Cod Bay.

"Whether you're out paddling, swimming, standup paddleboarding, surfing, do it in groups. You don't want to be doing that in an isolated situation where you're by yourself. You also don't want to congregate near where other seals are or other schools of fish are, or in murky water, in that type of situation," said Ryan Write, Cape Cod National Seashore acting chief ranger.

He also said it's best to not go past waist-deep water.

Back in 2017, a shark bit a surfer's paddleboard on Marconi Beach.