< Sand, Sunscreen And ... Sharks! Cape Cod Beach Towns Do More To Keep People Safe

August 28, 201911:42 AM ET

Sand, Sunscreen And ... Sharks! Cape Cod Beach Towns Do More To Keep People Safe

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AILSA CHANG, HOST:

It's been a bit tense on some of the beaches of Cape Cod this summer. That's because nearly a year ago, a young man was killed by a great white shark, the first such death there in more than 80 years. There's been an influx of sharks since a rebound in the seal population.

And now, as Sarah Mizes-Tan of member station WCAI reports, some Cape Cod beach towns are taking new steps to keep people safe.

SARAH MIZES-TAN, BYLINE: The sun is just starting to peek out from behind morning clouds at Newcomb Hollow Beach in Wellfleet, and Olivia Gattuso is sitting on the sand with her family. Normally, she'd be out in the water, but she's being more cautious this summer.

OLIVIA GATTUSO: I mean, yesterday was a really, really good swimming day, and I wouldn't let myself go, like, anywhere above my waist because I was too afraid. But normally, like even last year, I would go out swimming for, like, an hour at a time.

MIZES-TAN: After last year's deadly shark attack, Outer Cape towns are making changes. They've purchased taller lifeguard chairs, so lifeguards can see further offshore. There are now large signs warning about the risk of great whites in the area. And for this beach, there's also a new high-tech buoy in water that will alert lifeguards when it detects a tagged shark.

JODY CRAVEN: We actually are just coming off a closing right now. We had to close for an hour because the buoy pinged at 10:15.

MIZES-TAN: That's head lifeguard Jody Craven. The buoy sends an alert and a shark description to the lifeguards who will then call everyone out of the water. This year, these sightings have happened a lot, sometimes twice a day.

CRAVEN: It was a shark named Ben, and he's about 13.9 feet long. That's a pretty mature shark.

MIZES-TAN: The buoy was set up by state shark researcher Greg Skomal, who began tagging white sharks off Cape Cod four years ago. He says the tagged sharks are just a small slice of the population that exists in these waters.

GREG SKOMAL: We know at least 300 individuals, 350 individuals are visiting Cape Cod, but we'll, you know, definitely be able to tell you that that's not the actual estimate. It's going to be much more than that.

MIZES-TAN: He's also working on a study about shark behavior to help advise towns.

SKOMAL: You know, we talk a lot about seeing more and more white sharks from year to year to year. Now we'll be able to actually tell you, well, is it increasing? And what are the numbers looking like? And then get a sense of where the population trajectory is going.

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MIZES-TAN: On a nearby beach, EMT Henry Rex is riding an all-terrain vehicle. He's part of the town's new initiative to increase emergency response times in case of another shark attack.

HENRY REX: So what we do is we kind of monitor all the sections of the beach, and then we work with the lifeguards, and we patrol around looking for stuff, make sure everybody is doing good.

MIZES-TAN: The vehicles they're driving are equipped with a large plastic box and a duffel bag that contains all kinds of first aid equipment, including new items specifically for treating shark bites.

REX: We've upgraded our equipment a little bit. We have a lot more trauma dressings and hemostatic dressings and stuff like that.

MIZES-TAN: But some people say these measures are reactive, and they want towns to do more to prevent shark attacks. In the town of Chatham, select board member Shareen Davis acknowledges that she's heard of things like buoys that could detect not just tagged sharks but any shark movement in the water.

SHAREEN DAVIS: There'd been calls for putting shark barriers up and pingers, and I think that would be great if we could. Those are costly, and I don't know if the technology is even there yet.

MIZES-TAN: For now, she says towns haven't heard of any proven prevention tools. Officials think the most effective thing they can do is to make people aware of the new risk.

For NPR News, I'm Sarah Mizes-Tan in Wellfleet, Mass.

(SOUNDBITE OF TRENTEMOLLER'S "MISS YOU")

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