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sharks

    PUBLIC SAFETY

    Sharkfishermen Alarm Surfers at Wellfleet Beach

    White sharks were likely target of men armed with bluefish and a drone

    By

    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.

    LeCount Hollow Beach in Wellfleet attracts surfers all year round. On Sept. 28 fishermen suspected of targeting Atlantic white sharks there used bluefish and a drone to cast lines that entangled surfers. After a shark breached behind them, the surfers paddled in and stayed on the shore. (Photo by Liam Crivellaro)

    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.”

    SHARK SMART

    So Far, Experiments With Shark Barriers Don’t Sway Local Experts

    Growing acceptance of sharks’ presence shapes understanding of ‘mitigation’

    By

    WELLFLEET — Great white sharks have become as synonymous with Cape Cod summers as lobster rolls and bridge traffic. But as their population has rebounded after decades of decline, so have worries about the dangers of sharing the water with these migratory predators.

    A great white shark fin breaks the water’s surface off Coast Guard Beach in Eastham. (Photo by Pam King/NPS)

    While there have been no injuries here since Arthur Medici’s lethal encounter with a shark in 2018, both town and National Park Service officials are working to prevent shark and human interactions by tracking the sharks’ numbers and movements to better understand their behavior and by educating people about the risks.

    Craig O’Connell, a marine biologist who is not affiliated with any research institution but started his own nonprofit called O’Seas Conservation Foundation, based in Montauk, at the tip of New York’s Long Island, sees things differently. He is working on a shark barrier he thinks might be able to survive in turbulent Outer Cape waters.

    This past September, O’Connell tested his creation off the coast of Chatham and said it maintained its integrity in five-foot swells during a four-day deployment. But he tested the barrier away from the turbulent sand and water conditions near the beach, instead erecting it further offshore.

    So far, beach directors and shark experts are unconvinced of the effectiveness of the approach.

    Linzy French, the public information officer for the Cape Cod National Seashore, wrote in an email that the Seashore does not currently consider barriers to be a viable mitigation method, but that they are not familiar with O’Connell’s design and remain open to learning about new technologies as they are tested.

    Damion Clements, the director of community services in Truro who oversees the recreation and beach dept., said he has reached out to O’Connell about the device. He wrote in an email that he is not yet sure whether a shark barrier system could be viable in Truro, but he is “continually researching shark mitigation systems.”

    At the same time, Clements sought advice from Gregory Skomal, senior fisheries biologist with the Mass. Dept. of Marine Fisheries and head of the Mass. Shark Research Program.

    Skomal said he advised Clements that additional tests are needed.

    The Atlantic waters east of Cape Cod are generally too tumultuous for barriers to be effective. The area near shore is “a very dynamic zone,” said Skomal, characterized by rapidly moving sand and water that makes anchoring a barrier nearly impossible.

    Skomal’s observation echoes the findings of a shark mitigation study compiled by the environmental consulting organization Woods Hole Group in 2019, which found that shark barriers would not be able to withstand the conditions of Atlantic-facing beaches, making them unfeasible on the Outer Cape.

    Suzanne Grout Thomas, the director of community services in Wellfleet, expressed skepticism that any shark barrier could work on the Outer Cape. “We don’t have the correct geography,” she said, adding that the National Seashore waters were too volatile to support a barrier. “I can’t imagine it working,” she said.

    O’Connell’s shark barrier consists of pipes connected by chains that stretch from the seafloor to the surface and act as a physical barrier. It also has electromagnets, powered by either turbines or solar panels, and barium ferrite magnets in the pipes, according to O’Connell’s writeup of the experiment. Because sharks are sensitive to electromagnetic fields, these devices theoretically interfere with the sharks’ delicate senses and drive them away from the barrier.

    Off Chatham, O’Connell and his team performed tests in which they placed bait on one side of a 100-foot-long shark barrier, then watched to see if sharks would go around the barrier or through it. According to his report on the experiment, six great white sharks interacted with the bait, and all of them chose to go around the barrier.

    The experiment did not test whether sharks were reacting to the magnets within the barrier specifically or simply the physical structure. Skomal noted that O’Connell’s tests did not show whether the barrier would exclude sharks and revealed only that they would go around it to access food.

    O’Connell said the next step will be to erect a small exclusion zone at a beach and test the barrier’s ability to repel sharks. If this technology were to be used on the Outer Cape, O’Connell imagines it would be installed along “little pockets” of beach around 200 to 300 yards long. He envisions it as a seasonal technology that would have to be removed each fall and during big storms.

    Skomal said that O’Connell will need to assess the barrier’s effects on other marine life like seals, whales, and fish.

    Bryan Legare, the manager of the Shark Ecology Research Program at the Center for Coastal Studies in Provincetown, also noted that O’Connell’s design was preliminary and that more tests are needed.

    Legare said one of his concerns is that a faulty barrier could create a dangerous “false sense of security.”

    In 2019, Chatham residents voted on a proposal for a $100,000 project that would have included a feasibility study and the installation of a shark barrier at Oyster Pond. They rejected it by a single vote, 113-112. Many of the residents who voted against the proposal cited the fact that Oyster Pond is shallow, and no sharks had ever been recorded there, according to the Cape Cod Times.

    Skomal said he thinks the call for barriers here may be waning: “The Cape is coming to accept the presence of these animals,” he said.

     

    ANIMAL BEHAVIOR

    Sharks Patrol Shallow Waters Here

    Tagged sharks are common but can’t always be spotted from the air

    By

    PROVINCETOWN — The presence of great white sharks on the Outer Cape’s shores may not be the shocking news it used to be, but just how much of the time these fish are patrolling the waters close to shore during summer and early fall might be.

    Bryan Legare, a doctoral intern who is manager of the shark ecology program at the Center for Coastal Studies here, has been tracking shark movements and behaviors at Head of the Meadow in Truro since 2019 and at Nauset Beach in Orleans since 2020. He outlined his preliminary conclusions for the Barnstable County Assembly of Delegates on March 2.

    Based on three years of data, Legare said, great white sharks have been detected in near-shore waters at Head of the Meadow during one hour of every two-hour period between July Fourth and Labor Day. During the week of Aug. 9, 2020, they were detected at Head of the Meadow during 165 hours of the 168-hour period studied.

    Bryan Legare downloads environmental data at Head of the Meadow.

    When his tracking program expanded to Nauset Beach two years ago, the frequency of detection was a bit lower there in the first year. But by last summer, sharks were being detected at the same rate at Nauset Beach as they were at Head of the Meadow.

    Piggybacking on state shark researcher Greg Skomal’s tagging program, Legare said he uses a dense array of acoustic receivers that pick up the presence of tagged sharks and can closely pinpoint their movements.

    “There are also untagged sharks in these waters,” Legare said. “The point of this is not to be alarming, but to show these animals are in the near-shore environment. Even if we can’t see them from the sky or from land, they are present.”

    Legare has looked at shark behavior in relation to tide, time of day, and turbidity of the water. His preliminary findings suggest sharks are more likely to be present during high tide than mid-tide, but still show up in decent numbers at low tide. “What this tells me is they are probably responding to the currents, but again, that’s a preliminary assumption at this point,” Legare said.

    The data have shown white sharks tend to hug the bottom, whether the water is nine feet deep or 30. In greater depths or turbid waters, which are common on the Outer Cape, they can go undetected by both spotter planes and drones.

    Not surprisingly, Legare said the sharks are often found near heavy populations of seals, cruising back and forth along the inner bar.

    “You can clearly see that the density is highest near the seal haul-out — where seals come ashore in significant numbers to rest — and they spend the majority of time there,” he said. The advice that people not swim near seals “is a strong recommendation,” he said.

    While Atlantic white sharks are present throughout the day, Legare said they seem to favor low-light conditions, something he plans to study further because it could influence the effectiveness of technologies such as drones for spotting sharks.

    This summer, Legare will gather data at three more Outer Cape locations — Marconi and Newcomb Hollow beaches in Wellfleet and Herring Cove in Provincetown — thanks to funding from the National Seashore.

    While it is rare for a great white shark to bite a human, sharks have bitten people three times in the waters off Truro and Wellfleet since 2012, according to the Cape Cod National Seashore. In 2018, a boogie-boarder at Newcomb Hollow died, the first shark-bite fatality on the Atlantic coast since 1936.

    Bryan Legare, manager of the Shark Ecology Program at the Center for Coastal Studies, deploys receivers and an acoustic doppler current profiler at Head of the Meadow, where he has been collecting data since 2019. (Photos courtesy Center for Coastal Studies).

    Following Legare’s presentation, John Lipman, past deputy director of the Cape Cod Commission and an Orleans resident, asked about the use of real-time monitoring to alert the public to the numbers and locations of sharks. “My concern is that we’re not doing enough fast enough,” he said. “I worry, if we don’t do more, we’re going to have another shark attack.”

    Heather Doyle, leader of Cape Cod Ocean Community, an organization that advocates using technology to prevent shark attacks, argued that spotting sharks from the sky can be done and is “super tactical and available now.”

    Legare, however, had noted in his presentation that there are limitations to spotting sharks from planes or drones. “If they are 25 feet down in a turbid water environment, we’re not going to be able to see them from above,” he said.

    Wellfleet resident Pat DeFrancesco, a board member of Cape Cod Ocean Community, said, “I strongly feel we need to go back in time and restore the beaches to the safe and carefree environment that they were for my children growing up on the Cape.”

    In a phone interview, Seashore Supt. Brian Carlstrom said that the Park has installed call boxes at all six of the backshore beaches it manages. Meanwhile, his agency’s approach to safety emphasizes education. Lifeguards are receiving more training, he said, and the public is being informed about “shark smart principles,” that is, awareness about how humans can reduce risk when entering the sharks’ habitat.

    “We are doing everything we can,” Carlstrom said.

    COEXISTENCE

    Shark Mitigation Is Still an Uncertain Art

    Scientists say education is key, because sharks are here to stay

    By

    WELLFLEET — In the three years since a shark attack at Newcomb Hollow Beach — the first fatal attack on the Atlantic coast since 1936 — the debate about how best to mitigate the risk of future incidents has not advanced much. One thing that has shifted, it seems, is beachgoers’ risk tolerance. What we need, experts say, is to become “shark smart.”

    In the year following the attack, ominous signs warning of the danger of great white sharks replaced signs explaining the danger of rip currents at the beaches — despite the fact that drowning deaths are much more common than shark-related deaths. In the past 100 years, there have been two fatal shark attacks in Massachusetts, while there were over 100 drowning deaths in 2019 alone.

    But the signs fit the mood, as the community mourned Arthur Medici, 26, who was killed at Newcomb Hollow. Beachgoers were at first hesitant to return to the ocean. Now, however, it appears many have forgotten their fears. Visitors at Wellfleet’s backshore beaches regularly take pictures of friends posing cheerfully with the shark signs in the background.

    Shark warnings have replaced warnings about rip currents at ocean beaches. (Photo Nancy Bloom)

    For some, at least, Covid-19 has put shark attacks in perspective. Kai Potter, who writes the surfing column for the Independent, said that is true for him. When a simple thing like going to the grocery store became dangerous, he said, his tolerance for risk on the water shifted. “Surfing,” he explained, “makes me feel alive.”

    The shark attack did not decrease tourism at National Seashore beaches. For the past three years, the number of visitors has held steady at about four million a year.

    Still, at least some are asking that the National Park Service and local towns do more to provide protection from sharks.

    Olaf Valli, who owns Sick Day surf shop in Wellfleet, says he constantly thinks of the risks of shark attacks. He believes that addressing the threat is an “ethical responsibility for the towns on the Outer Cape.” He says that the town, which manages three of Wellfleet’s backshore beaches, should prioritize preventive measures as opposed to reactive ones like the bleed kits located at many beaches now.

    Questions about potential liability for town governments have been raised from time to time. In 2019, according to the Cape Cod Times, then-Wellfleet Town Administrator Dan Hoort said he had been advised by town counsel that, if Wellfleet invested in shark deterrent technologies, a false sense of security might be created, which could then leave the town liable if a shark attack did happen.

    The Massachusetts Tort Claims Act allows people to sue the government for the negligence of its employees, according to Michael Fee, a partner at Pierce & Mandell who lives in Truro. Fee disagrees with Hoort’s assessment. To acknowledge a problem but not institute serious preventive measures could be construed as negligence, he believes. “You are more likely to get sued if you knew about a dangerous condition and did nothing,” Fee said.

    Suzanne Grout Thomas, Wellfleet’s beach director, explains that, in addition to signs that warn beachgoers about sharks, seven beaches along the coast, including Newcomb Hollow and Lecount Hollow on Wellfleet’s ocean side, have buoys “that are set up to detect tagged sharks when they pass within 200 feet.” Thomas said the town has also increased shark-related training for lifeguards and provided them with higher stands and binoculars to look for movements in the water.

    As for shark technologies, there are many devices on the market that claim to deter sharks. But their effectiveness is not a sure thing. Greg Skomal, a fisheries biologist at the Mass. Div. of Marine Fisheries, notes that great whites are different from other sharks in that they “attack with great speed and stealth.” The thinking is, shark repellents that work with smaller sharks such as bull sharks may not work on great whites.

    For example, SharkBanz is a popular device that its maker says works by emitting a strong electromagnetic field. The sensation for sharks, according to the company’s website, is “analogous to having a bright light suddenly shined in your eyes in a dark room. You would not be hurt, but you would want to turn away.” The device is worn around the ankle and sold in many Cape shops, but it is not proven to work against great white sharks. Consumers who do not do careful research in advance would not know that until after buying the device, opening it, and reading the great white shark warning label inside.

    Research funded by the Australian government and published on the open access journal PLOS One in 2016 showed electronic deterrent technology to be promising. In tests conducted on Seal Island in the Western Cape of South Africa, where great white sharks are abundant, electric fields emitted by devices made for personal use caused sharks to be slower to interact with bait.

    The Australian company Ocean Guardian is working on commercializing a large-scale adaptation of the electronic deterrent idea. Their vision is to create an electronic shark barrier that could be used to protect entire beaches — but a prototype has not been tried on our shores.

    Some people question the logic of investing heavily in large-scale shark deterrents. Given that there is insufficient empirical data about how they might work in Cape Cod waters, Brian Carlstrom, the superintendent of the National Seashore, maintains that the “primary focus should be educating the public” and giving them the tools they need to be shark smart.

    Essentially, that means staying out of the shark’s hunting grounds, Skomal said. “Waist deep is as deep as I would go to cool off in the waters of the Outer Cape, just because anything deeper is accessible by a white shark trying to hunt a seal,” he told B.U. Today in a 2019 interview.

    The National Seashore’s “Shark Smart” page advises swimmers to stay away from seals and schools of fish; to swim, paddle, and surf in groups; and to stay close to shore. It also suggests that beachgoers use the Sharktivity app it developed with the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy and the Mass. Div. of Marine Fisheries to track and report great white shark sightings.

    Learning about sharks is important, Carlstrom said, even if it lowers the appeal of swimming at the beach. Nevertheless, as shark prevention technologies continue to evolve, Carlstrom said he remains open to further investigation.

    One thing is certain: the white shark population is increasing, as it has been for at least the past decade. Scientists consider that fact a conservation success story. Gray seals have rebounded here since passage of the 1972 Marine Mammal Protection Act. They are a preferred food for white sharks. So, Carlstrom explained, “sharks are returning to their historic range.”

    During a shark tagging expedition in 2019, Skomal found sharks not only in the ocean but also roaming Cape Cod Bay. He believes that the population will not plateau until an ecological balance is reached. Asked when he thought that might be, Skomal said he’s working on an answer in a research report due out at the end of the year.

    Benjamin Siegel of Sharon is a sophomore at Milton Academy and a summer resident of Wellfleet.

    Editor’s Note: Young Writers and Editors

    Benjamin Siegel and Cole Scott Tunstall took part in the Independent’s Summer Journalism Workshop for middle and high school students. Over a few weeks’ time, they worked to research and write their stories, with Summer Fellows Cam Blair and Ben Glickman as their editors. By chance, both pursued the question of co-existence between humans and the wild animals in our midst. Cole Scott Tunstall’s story on coywolves is linked here. —Ed Miller

    Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that attorney Michael Fee lives part-time in Truro; he lives in Truro full-time.

     

    ENVIRONMENT

    Spotter Pilots Help Scientists Study Sharks

    In the skies, a remarkable dance across the fishing-science divide

    By

    On a hot summer day in 2008, Wayne Davis was flying his Citabria, a single-engine two-seat propeller plane, off the shores of Cape Cod, looking for bluefin tuna. With nearly 40 years behind him as a spotter pilot for commercial fishermen, Davis was thinking about retirement.

    OP-ED

    Sharks and Viruses

    Why Islamic terrorism scared Americans more than pandemics

    By

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — If I had to pick the one thing that has changed most in the 28 years I’ve been coming to Truro, it would be the fear factor. Specifically, fear of sharks.

    Sure, there have been more important, more subtle shifts: beach erosion, economic inequality, craft beer, and the internet all come to mind. But this inflated selachophobia sticks out. It is out of character. It has changed the summertime mood. And it may say something about how the country has handled the current pandemic.

    As individuals and as a society, we use more emotion than intellect in responding to threats. We respond disproportionately when there is a vivid enemy — Saddam Hussein, Osama bin Laden, immigrants from south of the border, the great white shark.

    The boogie boarder killed by a great white in Wellfleet in September 2018 was the first shark fatality in this area in 82 years. You know the fallout from that sad event, and you have your own opinions about the sort of existential threat sharks pose on Cape Cod.

    Still, allow me to offer some facts to put the great white threat in perspective. In Barnstable County, 16 people died in traffic accidents in 2018, 14 in 2017, and 18 in 2016. Seventy-eight Massachusetts pedestrians were killed in traffic accidents in 2018.

    Between 2010 and 2018, 444 Cape Codders died from opioid overdoses.

    You get the idea. Statistically and rationally, death by shark is far too remote a thing to worry about. Driving on Route 6? Be afraid.

    Nationally, the equivalent of the great white shark is Islamic terrorism. Over the past four decades, including 9/11, the odds of dying by any form of foreign terrorism are roughly the same as getting eaten by a shark. Excluding 9/11, the odds that you’ll die by foreign terrorism in the U.S. are about the same as you biting a shark.

    To battle this remote threat, the U.S. military has sacrificed 7,000 lives overseas since 2001. U.S. spending on the war on terrorism since 2001 comes to some $6.4 trillion. We are still spending something north of $100 billion annually.

    Spending on the prevention of infectious diseases and pandemics has totaled around $1 billion a year recently.

    We now know that the Trump administration has tragically and scandalously bungled the novel coronavirus pandemic. But it is also true that the country has skimped on building a proper prevention infrastructure.

    It isn’t hard to understand why. There is no political capital to be gained by spending on preventing disaster, but there’s an enormous advantage in providing disaster relief. In spite of the AIDS tragedy, for most Americans “pandemic” was, till now, an invisible, third-world-sounding possibility with no enemy to conjure and demonize. No Osama bin Laden. No great white shark.

    The great invisible threat this country is now ignoring, of course, is climate change. Anyone who has walked Outer Cape beaches for the past 30 years knows the truth of that.

    It is likely, though not certain, that this country will be better prepared for future pandemics.

    But is it possible that the Covid-19 crisis will change how Americans collectively think about what we might call sharkless threats? Climate change. The extreme economic inequality that threatens social cohesion and our basic democracy. Gun violence.

    History does not yield optimistic answers. But the Great Pandemic of 2020 might yield some fresh wisdom.

    So, the next time you hear someone fretting about fear of swimming on Outer Cape beaches, tell them to drive more carefully on Route 6.

    Journalist Dick Meyer, a nonresident taxpayer in Truro, is the author of Why We Hate Us: American Discontent in the New Millennium.

    ENVIRONMENT

    Wellfleet Resident Challenges Shark Mitigation Study

    Says visual detection technology was improperly evaluated

    By

    WELLFLEET — Kristian Sexton, who says he is developing an aerial imaging system using drones to detect sharks, claims that there are “a number of serious problems” with the Woods Hole Group (WHG) Shark Mitigation Study that was presented at a public forum in October at Nauset Regional High School.

    After the forum, which was attended by about 200 people, many of whom stood up to ask questions or make statements, an online comment period extended to Dec. 16. Sexton was the only person to submit a written comment, according to Leslie Reynolds, chief ranger at the Cape Cod National Seashore (CCNS).

    Shark safety sign posted at the beach
    Beachgoers will be seeing more educational signs on shark safety this summer. (Photo Ryan Fitzgerald)

    “I’m not too surprised,” Reynolds said. “I think those who wanted to make comments made them at that public event.”

    Still, it was expected that after having time to read through the study people would submit responses during the comment period.

    Sexton, a pilot and CEO of Moosh Systems, submitted a 20-page document outlining his concerns with the WHG analysis of visual detection methods for sharks in Cape Cod waters.

    “For me, [the Woods Hole Group] lost all credibility,” Sexton told the Independent. “The report was a failure.”

    The WHG study, a collaboration among Lower Cape towns, CCNS, and Atlantic White Shark Conservancy (AWSC), cost about $50,000 and surveyed 27 mitigation methods, including technology-based, barrier-based, and biologically based alternatives. Ultimately, WHG concluded that there is no silver bullet that can guarantee safety for swimmers at Cape Cod beaches.

    To analyze visual detection methods — planes, helicopters, drones, towers, etc. — the WHG report reviewed one study, Sexton argued, that focused specifically on the ability of human observers in a fixed-wing plane and helicopter to spot roughly eight-foot wooden shark analogs moored in the water.

    Sexton said that WHG did not understand the study and reported its results incorrectly.

    Sexton said that the conditions of the waters in Australia, where the study was carried out, cannot be directly applied to Cape Cod waters, although he did agree with WHG that it’s impossible to detect all sharks in the water through any form of visual detection.

    At the end of its visual detection analysis, WHG stated, “It is likely that this level of performance will carry across all methods of visual detection.”

    Sexton said that there are no references or evidence for this assertion. “There’s no theory there,” he said.

    Adam Finkle of WHG declined to comment on Sexton’s analysis. He said that it is ultimately up to the regional shark working group, made up of Outer Cape town officials, CCNS officials, and the AWSC, to determine how to address comments.

    Truro Town Manager Rae Ann Palmer told the Independent in November that town officials and Seashore officials planned to discuss responses once the comment period ended. Palmer did not respond to a call last week.

    Reynolds said more research will be conducted this summer by Greg Skomal, the CCNS, and the Center for Coastal Studies. She said that scientists at Coastal Studies will be studying the nearshore environment across the Outer Cape to better understand tides, sediment movement, and channels or highways that sharks are most likely to pass through.

    “We want to understand how sharks travel along the coast,” she said. “There’s a lot more scientific research to be done.”

    She added that beachgoers can expect more educational pop-up tents on sharks and water safety at beaches this summer.

    “The shark working group is going to continue to work on education, research, and public safety,” she said, and added that the decision to implement any kind of technology would be made at a higher level than the towns or the Seashore.

     

    EASTHAM

    Select Board Renews Stewart’s Liquor License

    By

    EASTHAM — The select board voted 3-1 on Nov. 25 to approve the renewal of the liquor license for Stewart’s Restaurant on Route 6 despite questions about the character of the owner, William Stewart.

    Stewart was accused of sexual harassment by former female employees more than a year ago and is scheduled to be tried on the resulting charges this winter.

    Eastham police filed a request for a magistrate hearing on allegations of threats to commit a crime, accosting a person of the opposite sex, and assault and battery in September 2018. A magistrate’s hearing in November 2018 found probable cause to issue a complaint against Stewart for those allegations. A trial date is set for February 2020.

    “I think at this point we don’t have a legal reason to deny the license,” Town Administrator Jacqui Beebe told the select board.

    If Stewart is convicted, the board can revisit its decision and vote to revoke the liquor license, based on a state provision saying the licensing authority has discretion to determine whether the applicant is of “good character.”

    “The board could consider that a criminal conviction would be a disqualifier,” Beebe said.

    Shark Talk

     The select board held two public meetings on Nov. 16 and Nov. 21 to gather input on the Woods Hole Group’s shark mitigation study and the general topic of sharks and seals.

    Board member Jamie Rivers said that residents frequently ask about liability. They want to understand the liability involved should the town implement safety measures.

    Town Administrator Beebe said that a $100,000 cap on the town’s legal liability for incidents like a shark attack might be affected by mitigation efforts.

    “If we take action that promotes a sense of safety, and then something happens to someone, that would remove that cap,” Beebe said. Even a pilot program would carry that liability risk, unless every swimmer signed a release waiver.

    “So I think the issue for towns is that we have to be sure that the product or the barrier or whatever we’re using really works and we’re confident about it and we have enough of the technology and the staff and whatever’s needed to ensure that as a safe zone,” Beebe said.

    Holiday Festival

     The Eastham Chamber of Commerce will host the Eastham Holiday Festival at the Elks Lodge on Saturday, Dec. 7 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

    Activities will include holiday crafts, face painting, balloon twisters, raffles, kids’ performance demonstrations, free pizza from Red Barn Pizza, and visits with Santa. Free trolley rides will run from the Elks Lodge to the Red Barn. All are welcome.

    Committee Appointments

     The select board appointed Catherine Mondon to the board of health and Johnathan Rowe to the old towne center historic district commission. Ed Cestaro resigned from the harbor planning committee and Joan Matern resigned from the human services advisory committee.

    The select board appointed Paula Bruns to the board of directors of the council on aging and Stephen Zbell to the finance committee. The board also appointed Janet Benjamin and Trent Sullivan as conservation commission representative to the 1651 forest advisory committee and the harbor planning committee, respectively.

    Christopher McPherson resigned from the harbor planning committee.

     Take the Survey

    The town is updating its local hazard mitigation plan and is seeking feedback from residents via a public survey.

    For more information and to take the survey, visit eastham-ma.gov/home/news/hazard-mitigation-plan-update-public-survey. —Ryan Fitzgerald

     

    ENVIRONMENT

    Shark Mitigation Study Offers No Guarantees

    Woods Hole Group analyzed 27 alternatives

    By

    EASTHAM — “There isn’t a single alternative or suite of alternatives that can 100-percent guarantee the safety of all individuals who choose to enter the water,” coastal scientist Adam Finkle told a crowd of about 100 at Nauset Regional High on Oct. 17.

    Representing the Woods Hole Group (WHG), Finkle presented the results of the Outer Cape Shark Mitigation Alternatives Analysis completed by the consulting group. Its conclusion: no alternative can guarantee safety from shark attacks.

    But a “guarantee,” one citizen argued, is too high a mark to aim for.

    “There’s very few guarantees in life,” said Bob Wagner of Wellfleet. “Airbags are not 100-percent effective but people still get in their cars. It’s not stopping people from making cars because there may be an accident or a death that results if an airbag doesn’t deploy. People have to accept these risks.”

    Wagner directed his remarks to members of the Shark Working Group that includes Outer Cape town officials, National Seashore Supt. Brian Carlstrom, and Megan Winton of the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy (AWSC). The group fielded questions from the public after the presentation.

    The study, Finkle said, was not intended to produce a specific recommendation for action. The event, therefore, left many wondering what the next step is for dealing with the increasing shark and seal presence in local waters. Citizens and officials agreed that doing nothing is not an option, but without a clear-cut course many questions remain.

    Finkle, as project manager, gave an overview of the 192-page report. WHG plans to publish an executive summary that highlights key findings before the 2020 summer season for town and Seashore officials to review, he said.

    The analysis looked at 27 alternative strategies to mitigate encounters between sharks and humans in three categories: technology-based, barrier-based, and biological-based.

     

    Technology-based Barrier-based Biological-based
    Tagging (acoustic, real-time alert) Flexible Exclusion Barrier (Smart) Drum Lines
    Tagging (satellite, real-time alert) Rigid Exclusion Barrier Cull Nets
    Visual Detection (planes, helicopters) Semi-Rigid Exclusion Barrier Seal Contraception
    Visual Detection (tower-based) Bubble Curtains Seal Culling
    Visual Detection (balloons) Live Kelp Forests Indigenous Harvest
    Visual Detection (drones, tethered drones) Simulated Kelp Barrier Electric Shock
    Acoustic Detection (sonar buoy, real-time alert) Electrical Deterrents Scent-Smell
    Electromagnetic (active, wearable/mountable) Electromagnetic Deterrents Modify Behavior
    Magnetic (passive, wearable/mountable) Acoustic Barriers
    Adaptive Camouflage

    The study uses a detailed matrix to grade each of the 27 alternatives based on a set of six criteria: limiting factors, cost, permitting, effectiveness, potential impacts on humans, and potential environmental impacts. Each of the six categories contains a set of individual criteria.

    For example, the limiting factors are weather, marine conditions, effective range, effective depth, resilience to storm impacts, and commercial availability.

    Finkle went through each alternative with the audience. Some seemed promising but there were problems in every case.

    “None of the technology-based alternatives physically separates sharks from humans,” Finkle said.

    The study found that barrier systems have been installed in Australia and have been effective in excluding sharks from swimming areas for humans. But they come at a price.

    “A barrier would likely have extremely long permitting timelines and high cost if proposed locally,” he said.

    Biological-based alternatives were less promising.

    “Removing a couple thousand seals from the population is not likely to have a significant effect on the great white shark population,” Finkle said. “It’s also plausible that a reduction in the gray seal population may cause other gray seals from the greater northwest Atlantic population, close to 500,000, to move into the area to occupy that habitat.”

    One citizen pointed out what he called an error in the report, which suggests that a permit is required to operate a drone in the National Seashore.

    “[Drones] can be flown over the National Seashore, but they cannot take off or land within it,” Carlstrom said.

    Others questioned how well a drone could spot a shark beneath murky Cape waters.

    The 27 alternatives were chosen after WHG reviewed strategies used around the world, feedback from local towns, and feedback from a public survey.

    The survey was conducted in February and received 573 responses.

    “Results of the public survey proved critical to the development of this comprehensive list of alternatives,” the report states.

    The survey found that 50.1 percent of respondents said they preferred technology-based alternatives, 38.6 percent said they preferred biological-based alternatives, 16.2 percent said they preferred barrier-based alternatives, and 30.7 percent said they preferred an alternative that considered the human dimensions of the problem like engaging in “shark smart behaviors.” (Respondents could choose more than one answer.)

    Cost will be a significant factor in any decision that is made about shark mitigation.

    Jay Coleman, who owns a house in Eastham, questioned where the funding would come from for any proposed project. “You’re not going to get the money I don’t think from the federal government or from the taxpayers, are you?” he said.

    “I think that the results in this report and the money decisions are going to be made at a lot higher level than the shark working group,” said Chief Ranger Leslie Reynolds of the Seashore.

    The report is available to view online at eastham-ma.gov/home/news/outer-cape-shark-mitigation-alternatives-analysis.

     

     

     

    LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

    Letters, Oct. 17, 2019

    From Malcolm Pollack, Gail Ferguson, Katharine Baker, and L. Michael Hager

    By

    Beware the ‘Appeal to Nature’

    To the editor:

    The front-page article in the Sept. 6 issue titled “Culling Seals Is Wrong Answer to Shark Threat, Scientists Say”) is a fine example of the rhetorical device (and logical fallacy) known as the “appeal to nature.”

    It may well be that infestation by sharks and seals is the natural state of our local waters. This can tell us nothing, however, about what is good or right, or what we ought to do.

    Adding “scientists say” at the end of the headline merely compounds the fallacy: scientists can only tell us (with decidedly mixed results) what to expect from the natural world in response to various courses of action. They have, however, no privileged position in ethics or policymaking.

    The history of civilization is, in general terms, the history of humanity’s increasing control of nature. We all remember a time when we swam in the Cape’s waters without fear of deadly attack; this was surely due to the seal bounty that had been in effect since the 19th century.

    Reversion to a “state of nature” is generally a thing to be avoided in human affairs. Perhaps it would better have been avoided here as well.

    —Malcolm Pollack, Wellfleet

     

    Carlson’s HDYLTA Recusal

    To the editor:
    I am writing regarding your article “Wellfleet Struggles With Leadership Crisis” [online, Aug. 16] and the letter from Wil Sullivan [online, Aug. 29] that followed. In his letter Sullivan criticized select board member Justina Carlson for signing the June 22 HDYLTA shellfish flats purchase and sale agreement and then later declining to participate in a select board discussion of the purchase.

    Ms. Carlson had been very clear about her reason for not participating in deliberations concerning the HDYLTA property. She explained that, although she had received a legal opinion stating that she did not have a conflict of interest, she nevertheless felt that she should recuse herself from select board discussions and votes because of a personal relationship. Despite her recusal Carlson later participated in the June signing of the HDYLTA purchase and sale agreement so that the document would have the required number of legal signatures, thereby enabling the select board to proceed as scheduled. (Helen Wilson had become ineligible to sign because of her million-dollar pledge toward the cost of the town’s purchase.)

    Carlson cannot, based on these facts, be said to have abandoned or contradicted her earlier decision to recuse herself from substantive discussions. Her act of signing was strictly administrative, or ministerial. It was an act that was necessarily taken to enable the select board to implement the decision that the town’s voters had made at our annual town meeting, when we heartily approved money for the HDYLTA purchase.

    Carlson had spoken in support of the purchase at town meeting. She walked to the public microphone to speak, which indicated that she was electing to exercise her right to speak as a resident voter, and that she was not speaking as a select board member.

    —Gail Ferguson, Wellfleet

     

    An Island Institute Fan

    To the editor:

    David Panagore’s column about the Island Institute in Rockland, Maine [Oct. 10, page 3] was especially interesting to me because that is just across the water from my family place in Vinalhaven, and we’ve been members for years. Everything the article says is absolutely true.

    —Katharine Baker, Northampton and North Truro

     

    Setting a Standard

    To the editor:

    Congratulations on your launch of The Provincetown Independent. The first print issues demonstrate a range of reporting and a quality of writing that portends success. In an era of declining local journalism, you have set a new standard for press revival.

    —L. Michael Hager, Eastham

     

    ENVIRONMENT

    Culling Seals Is Wrong Answer to Shark Threat, Scientists Say

    Larger seal population seen as sign of healthy environment

    By

    PROVINCETOWN — Calls to curb the seal population in Cape Cod waters by ending their protected status under federal law are misguided, say scientists who study marine ecology. In spite of the increased presence of great white sharks here, they say, the return of both seals and sharks represents a re-establishment of the balance of nature that was upset by decades of seal hunting.

    Moreover, seals are wrongly blamed for polluting the water with their feces, and their effect on fish populations has been exaggerated, according to experts in marine life.

    Seals on the beach
    A gray seal haul-out with a young harbor seal in the foreground. (Photo courtesy Center for Coastal Studies under NOAA Permit No. 21719)

    Citizen groups like the Nantucket-based Seal Action Committee are calling for the removal of seals from the federal Marine Mammal Protection Act. The Barnstable County Commissioners heard a presentation from that group last month, and Commissioner Ron Beaty has argued that seals are a threat to the regional tourist economy. The evidence on the economy suggests otherwise.

    Richard Delaney, president of the Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies (CCS), says the seal population will eventually stabilize once it reaches its carrying capacity in the Cape’s waters. Disease, predation from sharks, and limited food availability will “re-establish the balance that we really knocked out of kilter when we decided to interfere with it,” he said.

    Before 1800, seals inhabited the Cape in large numbers. “This was a natural habitat for them for years, until people decided that they were a nuisance,” Delaney said.

    From the late 1800s through the early 1960s, the state maintained a bounty on seals. “If you were a citizen of Cape Cod and killed a seal and brought its nose to town hall, you’d get a payment,” Delaney said. “That bounty put on seals basically eliminated all the seals in this area.”

    In 1972 Congress passed the Marine Mammal Protection Act, which prohibited killing seals and whales. “Once they were protected, seals were able to re-establish their natural niche in the ecosystem,” Delaney said. “That’s why from 1972 to now we have seen an increase in the population.”

    Responding to the shark threat

    The risk of shark attack, though small, is real. Rather than killing sharks or seals, however, marine scientists advocate more caution in the water. One example of that approach is a change of course for Provincetown’s popular annual Swim for Life, scheduled for Sept. 7 this year.

    Instead of crossing the open water of Provincetown Harbor from Long Point to the Boatslip Resort, as swimmers have done for each of the past 31 years, participants will instead swim along the coast.

    Map of new Swim for Life course
    This year’s Provincetown Swim for Life, on Sept. 7, will take a new route to the Boatslip.

    Swim for Life organizers decided to change the route two weeks ago, when the Cape Cod National Seashore denied a permit for the usual course because of concerns about shark activity.

    “It’s a low risk, but if something were to happen it would be a major catastrophe,” said Jay Critchley, director of the Provincetown Community Compact, which has sponsored the swim since its inception. Compact directors have discussed the possibility of alternate routes for several years as shark activity has increased, Critchley said.

    “The Compact board and Park Service were on the same page this year” about changing course, he said. This year, the swim will begin at the Provincetown Inn and finish, as usual, at the Boatslip.

    Critchley hopes the coastal route will mitigate fear among participants. “Every time I talk with somebody about the Swim for Life, they bring up Jaws,” he said. “That movie really scared people about being in nature.”

    Intense media coverage of the two shark attacks last summer in Truro and Wellfleet did not help. “The heightened public awareness and public concern about sharks, plus a lot of video — it’s just been an extravaganza,” he said.

    The evidence on seals and culling

    Andrea Bogomolni, chair of the Northeast Atlantic Seal Research Consortium, confirmed that the large seal population has both increased shark activity and caused some fish-stealing. As fish struggle against lines, they tire out, making them an easy dinner for seals.

    “Much of the recreational catch is thrown overboard [after being caught], so the discarded fish also attracts seals,” Bogomolni said.

    Provincetown charter boat Capt. Mike Rathgeber is concerned about the seals’ effect on Cape Cod’s ecosystems. But the seals have not been bad for business. In fact, Rathgeber said, “I’ve been using seals as a fish finder.” Seals hauled out on a beach typically indicate a large supply of fish in the surrounding waters.

    The recreational anglers that Rathgeber hosts also enjoy a “seal show” as the animals swarm around the boat to devour scraps left over from filleting.

    For all their cuteness, seals can be a nuisance, often eating the fish off Rathgeber’s lines. When a seal starts its attack on the hooked fish, “the only recourse we have is to cut the line and give it to them, but it also means the seal is eating the hook,” he said. “It happens very frequently, almost on a daily basis.”

    But market fish are not the seals’ primary source of food, according to preliminary results from a CCS research study. Delaney said seals primarily eat sand lances, small fish of about four or five inches, which are not fished for human consumption.

    “Seals actually eat an awful lot of things other than the striped bass and bluefish that the fishermen complain about,” Delaney said.

    Furthermore, seals do not contribute to water pollution. Delaney said that rigorous studies have not been able to prove a correlation between pollution and the presence of seals.

    “We human beings are far more culpable for putting pollution into the ocean than seals could ever be,” he said.

    Moreover, any effort to cull seals would be unlikely to have much effect. Even if all the seals in Cape Cod waters were exterminated, more would come to replace them. Delaney said that the 450,000 seals currently living in Nova Scotia would quickly fill the gap.

    “Once some of the seals realized it was safe, they could expand their habitat back down here,” he said. “The whole idea of culling seals is not based in science and does not understand the ecological relationships seals have in the ocean.” Seals play important roles in the coastal ecosystem, and their large numbers are a sign of a healthy environment.

    Climate change is not to blame for the booming seal population, at least not directly, Bogomolni said. Although some species, like lobster, are migrating farther north to find cooler water, the seals’ diverse diet allows them greater flexibility in habitat.

    Adapting to a changing environment

    The increase in the seal population has undoubtedly caused some growing pains, but adapting to evolving environmental conditions also creates new possibilities for communities on the Outer Cape.

    For example, the Swim for Life’s new course may make the event more accessible. With less risk of shark attack, “We’re hoping that there will actually be more swimmers this year,” Critchley said.

    Swim for Life in 2016
    Swim for Life organizers hope this year’s change of course will increase the number of swimmers. (Photo courtesy Provincetown Community Compact)

    This year, the Community Compact is also hoping to host a satellite swim, which would take place at the same time as the Provincetown event in Wellfleet’s Great Pond. The Compact is still awaiting approval from the Wellfleet Select Board for the alternate kettle pond swim.

    Aqua aerobics instructor Joan Nagle, who is helping to organize the satellite swim, said that she encouraged the women in her class to participate.

    “We’re very excited about the pond swim simply because I think we’re going to reach another part of the population that probably could have never done the one in the harbor,” Nagle said. In Provincetown Harbor swimmers must navigate boats, buoys, currents, and waves. But in Great Pond, “You don’t have all the variables — like cold water — which you do in the bay or ocean. You don’t even need a wetsuit.”

    The Swim for Life is a benefit for HIV/AIDS treatment, community well-being, and women’s health, and has raised over $6.5 million since its inception in 1988. Swimmer and boater registration begins at 7 a.m. at the Boatslip Resort on Saturday, Sept. 7, and the public is invited to welcome the swimmers to shore at the Boatslip starting at 8:30 a.m., followed by a brunch at 11.

     

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