Shark Research

Above: A large white shark tracked from Head of the Meadow beach, Truro, Massachusetts, summer of 2021. 

Whales, seals, Mola mola (ocean sunfish), dolphins, huge schools of fish; in 25 years of surfing, swimming and body boarding the "outer cape" (the eastern most towns, facing the Atlantic Ocean).  I've seen a lot of wild sea life, but I've never seen a great white shark, or any shark in the water, until the summer of 2014.  While surfing at Coast Guard Beach, in Eastham, on a warm August day, my friend Dan and I witnessed something straight outta Shark Week. 

The waves were small, we weren't very far out, the water was 6-8 feet deep. While we were sitting on our boards, we noticed the grey seals that were moving north (with the current) were none too happy about our being in the middle of their mid-day migration. The seals were grunting, groaning and were actually passing inside (closer to shore) of us, which is very strange, given we weren't very far out... 

We quickly theorized that there was probably a big great white patrolling, just offshore and the seals were aware and didn't want to pass to the outside of us (deeper water). Heeding the seals warning, we paddled about 50 feet closer to shore- to give the seals (and possibly shark) a wide berth. No sooner did we paddle into shallower water, we see a commotion, 50 yards to the north, same distance offshore as we had just been- A giant splash, followed immediately by a small seal breaching (jumping out) the water, and a huge, grey pectoral fin (arm), or possible tail, of what must have been a giant great white shark. The seal seemed to have evaded the strike, and I looked at my buddy, Dan, as we both said simultaneously: "you see that!?" As our eyes popped outta our heads. There was actually a young surfer not more than 6-10 feet away from the commotion, with his back to the action, and he was completely unaware of what just happened.

A 15-foot female white shark hunts at the edge of a surf break along Cape Cod’s popular Coast Guard Beach in Eastham, Mass. Credit: Pamela King

Every year would bring more great white sightings, one memorable photo, on the cover of the local paper was a guy getting chased on his kayak, by a big great white, at Nauset beach, early July, 2012.

2018 was different. 

Most of the surfers I know had either seen a shark in the water, or been called out because of a shark sighting. My friends and I had begun to alter our behavior to try to mitigate any shark encounters: We didn't get up and surf "dawn patrol" or surf into the darkness, as we had relished in years past. We also started avoiding Nauset public beach in Orleans (during the summer,) because Nauset had by far the most sightings. After our experience at Coast Guard beach, a few years prior, we were kind of avoiding that beach, too. In fact, we were surfing more on the South Coast, Rhode Island and the South Shore; consciously, or sub-consciously, as a result. 

I rented a beach cottage in Wellfleet over Labor Day week, the unofficial last week of summer in 2018; as i had in prior years. I brought the boards, plans for bbq, beers and surf with friends was on tap. A very peaceful, relaxing and beautiful time of year on Cape Cod. Crowds are down, traffic is light, and the shadows are getting longer. The sun doesn't blind you at 6 am, like it does, coming over the Atlantic, in June and July.  

The week on the beach was awesome, it was "highlighted" by a morning surf with my buddy Kev, who was paddle boarding about 250 feet south of me.  We were probably 50-75 yards from shore; the waves were waist high.

All of a sudden (a wave in between us, so I can't see him) I hear KC half yell something-"sh..aaaa..."  then, a second later, we spotted each other and he yelled- "SHAAAAAARK!!!" -we both skedaddled into shore, unscathed. He told me a juvenile 8-9 ft great white shark had darted right at his board, only to turn around at the last second... The only reason he knew it was a shark and not a large grey seal, he said was: Right as the shark turned, he could see the vertical, crescent-shaped l tail of the fish, as opposed to webbed flippers of a grey seal. 

A week later, Arthur Medici, a college student from Revere, Massachusetts- became the first person killed by a shark in New England waters, since ~1938.

Arthur was bodyboarding with his buddy, mid-day on an idyllic late summer swell.  The beach was full of people and there were dozens of people in the water. After talking with a witness, just a week after the event, he told me that Arthur and his friend, Issac were surfing among everyone else, basically out front the parking lot, but they drifted south and were paddling through a deep section, or trough in between two sand bars when he was attacked. By the time, his heroic buddy could get him ashore, he was gone. 

--RIP Arthur Medici--

https://boston.cbslocal.com/2018/09/16/wellfleet-cape-cod-shark-attack-death-arthur-medici/