WELLFLEET — Surfers at LeCount Hollow Beach called the Wellfleet police on the morning of Sept. 28 to report that three anglers were fishing for sharks there, one of them using a drone with a line attached to drop bait into the water in close proximity to the people in the water.

The surfers told Wellfleet police dispatcher Selena Austin that fishermen had been chumming the water off the beach to attract sharks and that a great white shark had been seen in the water near where they were surfing, forcing them to race for the shore, according to the police report.

Officer Rachel Bunce and Sergeant Jeremiah Valli went to the scene, according to the report, but observed no violations and found that the three fishermen involved, Alexander James Whittet of Harwich, Sean Willis, and Brennus Parks, a founder of JP Fishing LLC, a shark-fishing outfit based in Maryland, had valid fishing licenses. The report gave no home addresses for Willis or Parks.

The men told the police they were fishing for bass and stingrays, according to the police report.

The report says that the National Park Service was “advised and en route,” then, a few minutes later, investigating on the scene. Wellfleet Police Chief Kevin LaRocco told the Independent on Oct. 3 that his department handed control of the situation over to National Park Service rangers.

Susan Reece, chief of interpretation, education, and cultural resources for the Cape Cod National Seashore, declined to answer questions, saying the case “is an ongoing investigation in cooperation with our local and state law enforcement partnering agencies.”

Laird Penny of Wellfleet said he had arrived at LeCount at 6:15 a.m. that Saturday to surf and saw the three fishermen there preparing to fish from the beach. He said that he and other surfers got in the water before any of the anglers cast a line.

Penny said that there were four surfers in the water when a drone flew overhead carrying a dead bluefish attached to a hook and a line and dropped it in the water beyond them.

Penny told the Independent that he had gotten out of the water and was looking down from the dunes when he saw “a massive upwelling” 20 yards behind the surfers as a shark came to the surface.

Surfers Brendan McCray of Orleans and Sara Moran of Wellfleet, who were in the water at the time, confirmed Penny’s account. “We all just paddled in as fast as we could,” McCray said.

Parks, who would speak to the Independent only through messages on his social media account, confirmed that he and the other two fishermen were aware of their proximity to the surfers.

The Independent viewed a video posted on Whittet’s social media account on the morning of the incident, recorded as he prepared to release his bait into the water at LeCount Hollow using a drone. In the video, surfers are seen in the water, and a voice is heard: “Ready to send it here but we got surfers in our way. They’re going to be getting a bluefish dropped on their head.”

Great White Territory

The fishermen said they were not fishing for great white sharks.

Fishing for Atlantic white sharks, also known as great white sharks, is banned in all American waters, according to NOAA regulations.

Parks told the Independent that they were fishing for sandbar, sand tiger, dusky, blue, and thresher sharks. But fishing for sandbar, sand tiger, and dusky sharks is also illegal in Massachusetts. And Greg Skomal, a Div. of Marine Fisheries expert on sharks, said that the other two species the men named, thresher and blue sharks, are only found miles offshore.

“In 37 years of working on sharks in this state, I can say that I have only encountered white sharks in the shallows along the Outer Cape,” Skomal said.

Megan Winton, a senior scientist at the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy, agreed. “Anyone using fishing gear to target large sharks from the Cape’s Atlantic-facing beaches is there to try and catch a white shark, whether they admit it or not,” she wrote in an email.

Whittet’s social media account says he is a Cape Cod fisherman and invites would-be shark anglers to get in touch directly: “DM me to book a shark fishing adventure!” his profile says. On that same account, the Independent viewed video posted on Sept. 21 of an Atlantic white shark being caught and reeled in to shore.

Whittet did not respond to a message requesting an interview and blocked the reporter, preventing further contact.

Using Drones to Fish

Parks said that Whittet was the only one of the three operating a drone.

Flying a drone is illegal on both town-owned and National Seashore property, according to Suzanne Grout Thomas, director of the Wellfleet Beach Dept. According to the police report, the fishermen were on private property, however. The report does not say whose property they were on.

Parks said that Whittet was told that flying the drone is not permitted “but continued to use it to take bait out” after the police and park rangers left.

At least two surfers got caught in the fishermen’s lines. Penny said he was one of them. He got fishing line wrapped around his right ankle but said that because he was not riding a wave at the time he was able to untangle it.

Surfer Brendan McCray of Orleans tried to speak with the sharkfishermen directly. McCray said he suggested they move their fishing elsewhere, but the men were unwilling. Later, another surfer had what McCray called a “less polite” conversation with the men, after which a surfer was “clotheslined” by the fishing gear.

Parks said they had refused to move because the surfers had “the audacity” to ask them to move even though they had arrived at the beach first. The surfers, they claimed, were “surfing into our lines on purpose.”

“From my perspective it was totally disrespectful,” said Moran. “Our community had a shark attack, and I think we’re still healing from that,” she said, referring to the 2018 death of Arthur Medici at Newcomb Hollow Beach in Wellfleet.

Penny described the sharkfishermen’s actions as “complete recklessness and endangering our lives,” adding, “I’m glad that no one was hurt.”