Scientists issue dire warning about Cape Cod shark attacks
CHATHAM -- When the summer months roll around, reports of shark attacks are sure to follow in North America, CBS Boston reports.
But do Cape Cod beachgoers have anything to worry about?
An article in Sunday’s Cape Cod Times asserts that “Scientists agree it’s not a matter of if – but when – there will be a fatal attack on Cape Cod.”
The newspaper interviewed George Burgess, who directs the shark research program at the University of Florida and edits the online International Shark Attack File.
He’s been around the world to help countries dealing with sharksand believes he’ll be summoned to Cape Cod within the next five years.
According to The Cape Cod Times, Massachusetts has seen three unprovoked shark attacks since 1837.
Burgess says both sharks and their prey are seeing population growth, and they’re moving back in to territory that had long been theirs.
“This is the time to be thinking about it, before you have that first big attack,” he said.
How would the public react to a shark attack on Cape Cod?
“When it happens in a remote area, the general public doesn’t feel that as much,” Sara Waries, project manager at Shark Spotters, told the newspaper. “But when it happens on the beaches where you take your children to swim, the trauma is really deep.”