I've been telling my wife for several years that it's just a matter of time before the great whites here start killing people in the waters off the cape. Well, I was right. In recent years there has been a pair of non-fatal attacks attributed to great whites, but today marks the first time in some 80 years that a shark has killed anyone in New England waters. I find myself wondering what happens now. In cases where bears and cats and alligators and whatnot, the offending critters are found, if at all possible, and killed for their transgressions. My guess is that no hunt for the shark will take place. Maybe when a few more folks wind up on the white sharks' menu some will call for that sort of thing, but I'd be against it. You enter waters where known maneaters eat, you take your chances.

'Here's to swimming with bow-legged women!"

RIP, young man.

https://www.wcvb.com/article/wellfleet-shark-attack-victim-dies-newcomb-hollow-beach/23239475

Another Jaws movie will be out soon!!!

Lotsa people getting killed by nature this summer.

The rest watch and don't learn much.

I'm waiting for WAPO to say Trump was complicit.

"You enter waters where known maneaters eat, you take your chances. " Of course.

Gettin' et by a shark must be a singularly horrible way to slide down the curtain and join the choir invisible.

I've been running the Outer Banks of North Carolina since the mid 70's. A couple of years ago they had a rash of shark attacks in water little more than waist deep. They seem to have subsided as of late.

sharks have to eat too.

not to be facetious, but the ocean can be dangerous.

we humans seem to think we're above being prey for carnivores.

honestly, i just hate it when humans complain about sharks in the water.

Damn..

get in the surf past your knees you become part of the food chain. most people don't understand that.

Blissful ignorance.

Blissful to a point anyway,

Going where the apex predators live puts the peppers in the chili......along w/ the beans.



mike r

Always my thoughts too. I always shudder now when I remember racing a friend’s son out to half mile bouy in the green, opaque, winter waters off Cabo St Lucas. Had to look like an old Heddon 𝚃𝚘𝚙-water lure.

Condolences to family and friends.

Always surprised we don't have more attacks here. Luckily we, humans, don't smell of act like their average meal. Sure proves the wrong bait and presentation CAN illicit an occasional bite though.

RIP young man.

I bet it hurts bad, that one armed girl surfer got back on her board.

I’m sure he knew the risks.

What ya gonna do? Hide in a bubble?

Once upon a time, long, long, ago; 1970 to be exact, I was a lifeguard on the coast of North Carolina. We occasionally saw sharks but they were all fairly small and known as " sand sharks". That whole saltwater ecosystem was fascinating to a guy who'd grown up swimming in the freshwater of Lake Ontario. Never heard of a shark attack that summer and never gave it much of a thought even when swimming way out past the breakers. Nobody back then seemed too concerned about sharks so I wasn't either. Now I wonder if I'd been deceived into a false sense of security.

My first real job at age 16 was on a trawler out in the Gulf of Mexico. I was amazed at the number of big sharks that stayed with us to eat our by-catch that we pushed overboard. If a fleet of trawlers were concentrated there would be sharks breaking the surface as far as you could see. It seemed that Galveston was a congregating place for sharks. A captain I worked had lost a man overboard and he said he watched the sharks tear him to pieces. They were actively following the boat and feeding. I wouldn't get over knee deep in salt water.

I was staying in my cabin at Fourth Cliff and saw the antics of a monster white from my adirondack chair. I might make love in the dunes of the cape, but I’ll be damned if I swim there.

I’m not sure what hurts more, getting eaten by a shark or a sandy pecker while making love in the dunes of the cape? Fugging with double sided 80 grit ain’t no fun for you or her. 😂

Homo Sapiens are prey in water >4', anyways can anyone detect what language the tattoo on his arm is in, and maybe even a translation. It appears to be arabic or sanskrit to me, but I'm not the best of language detectives.

If it was gonna happen anywhere, it would be there. The stretch of beach from Race Point to Chatham is thick with seals.

I just spent a week in the surf and fog on Nantucket. We had a pair of seals that worked up and down the beach every day. At times they weren’t 40’ from the beach. There wasn’t a second, where I didn’t think about the unlikely possibility of a GW cruising the shoreline. Whether rational or not, an uneasiness kept my Black Lab’s bumper in closer than otherwise would have been the case.

Water temps 75° F

You have to be a professional at it but there was this one fall during a NorEaster suds and wind, that left us raw and washed the road out back at the cabin.

I’ll still take the 80grit sex over getting eaten by one of those sharks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ge4oufdIOMc

I’m with you in that 80 grit sex is preferable to being eaten by a shark......by a long shot.

We’ve got so many god damned seals and sea lions that it’s just a matter of time.

RIP young man , hate seeing young people lose their young just beginning life - Sad . .

A guy I worked with in biloxi - he was from seattle area - but was surfing down in oregon - late evening .
Waited for a nice wave he wanted and was paddling hard to get on it - his arm smacked into something and his mind was -what the hell did I touch , it was a huge great white shark right beside him . Said it scared him so bad looking into the black saucer size eye he just froze , he said he thinks his heart stopped beating for a few seconds . It turned in front of him and the big board he was on went up on its back - then it just disappeared . He paddled in with tiny strokes shaking like whole body spasms and couldn't talk . .
Never went in saltwater again - not even in biloxi .

"Mommy, why are there all these big, scary sharks around here?"

"Well I'm not really sure but probably because of all the yummy little fish like flounder and mackerel that they love to eat around here, honey."

Pretty beach, Brian. If you ever get over to Monomoy's outside beaches to fish, leave Dot at home.

Tremendous bass fishing can be had there, though...

saddens me to read about things like this. I have been in the water with sharks most of my life. Came real close to disaster some years back diving a tanker that was torpedoed in WW II. It can be scary down there.

Last month I caught a striper (schoolie) while wading near the mouth of Scorton Creek. I released it and made another cast. As my fly splashed into the water, I noticed 40 yards directly behind it the head of a big seal intently watching me. My immediate thought was that there was no way it was going to let me land a second fish. My second thought was about the possibility of there being a shark watching the seal that was watching me.

Yep. Don't even have to go past your knees.

Seals are pretty impressive predators in their own right. Years ago I was wading out to retrieve a big eider that I'd just shot off a jetty in the surf on the North Shore. As I got to within about 20 feet of the bird a large swirl in the water appeared around it. My first thought was, SHARK! I felt a little silly when I saw the grey seal pop its head up. It was January, after all.The bastard then took my eider and scrammed. They are big, powerful critters. The animals that feed on them, such at the whites? They are absolutely a no joke animal.

i was there that summer. people were getting hit right and left. took all the fun out of that place. ain't been back since. probably won't either.

Just like the fear of being snuck up on by a bear or mt lion while napping under a tree when hunting, I don't let the fear of being hit by a shark stop me from going in the ocean.

Swam, surfed, body surfed, snorkeled, SCUBA dived up and down the West coast including some in Baja, from San Diego to Port Orford OR.

If circumstances hadn't had me living and working far inland the past 15-20 years I'd still be doing it.

Especially body surfing..................there's nothing in the world like feeling like one of them seals or dolphins playing in the waves.

Lions and Tigers and Bears and Great Whites....................................Oh my!

Geno

PS, condolences to the young man's family and friends.

We used to catch and kill a lot of big sharks on the beaches and there weren’t many seals. Now you have lots of prey and nobody killing the sharks inshore. Big sharks are making a comeback and people are going to die.
I don’t fish the Northeast but I have the gulf plenty. See more big bulls and tigers than ever now.

I agree and follow the same basic idea as you, Geno. I love the ocean too much to stay out of it. What I won't do is swim in places with lots of other bait in the water, with daily sightings of large sharks close enough to shore to hit them with a rock. Other thing is, I am always trying to be 100% aware of my surroundings. Not suggesting that this man's death could've been avoided if he was paying better attention or whatever, but in a place where seals make up a large part of the diet of the whites, bodysurfing/boogie boarding just strikes me as a bad idea. Ever see what a man lying on a board looks like from below, especially one in a dark colored wetsuit ? A lot like the profile of a seal. And I mean a LOT.

kg,

oh yeah, being a body boarder/surfer/body surfer I know just what our profiles look like from below.

High concentrations of "bait" pinnipeds are not the prime safe areas to play in the surf. They have many benefits for that type of recreation though, usually smaller crowds, nice breaks, and abalone in some spots.

What's that saying? You pays your money and you takes your chances, right.

Had an interesting experience on a boogie board once, Imperial Beach San Diego, just south of the pier. Sundown, waiting outside for at least one last wave. Water around me started to shimmer, school of anchovies started popping up. I had to wonder what was chasing them up from below. Never found out, as we got dive bombed by a squad of brown pelicans. It's pretty spectacular to have some birds bigger than a wild turkey come crashing into the water 2' away from 30-40' above you. It was amazing and I thanked the "sea gods" and said goodnight to the ocean and rode a wave in. And thanked them that pelicans in a dive are pretty accurate too!

Had I an overwhelming fear of sharks that kept me out of the water, I'd never have had one of the most memorable experiences in my life.

One does get to thinking when one knows one could be prey though.

Enjoy your pics as always and hope you and your bride are enjoying the beginning of fall.

Geno