abstraction
13.06.2021 3:11:42
“It’s one of the few places in the world where you can see or have the opportunity to see white sharks from shore,” said Carlstrom. [links]
See full version: Echoes of Jaws as Cape Cod learns to live with rise of the great white shark
“It’s one of the few places in the world where you can see or have the opportunity to see white sharks from shore,” said Carlstrom. [links]
After last year’s attacks, bleed control kits are being placed on beaches and members of the general public are being encouraged to take “stop the bleed” classes. Towns are investing in all-terrain vehicles so that injured persons do not have to be carried off the beach by hand. Towns are planning on keeping lifeguards on the beaches longer, past Labor Day. And with spotty cellphone coverage on some beaches, emergency call boxes are being installed to ensure that 911 can be reached. here
A great white shark chases a seal off the Massachusetts coast in Monomoy. Photograph: Reuters
Massachusetts has always been within the range of great whites, but now they are migrating here from the south in greater numbers every summer. more
“For every animal there’s a predator. And in the case of the seals, that predator is the white shark,” said Skomal.
Hunted relentlessly since European settlers first arrived in New England, the seal population has been recovering since the implementation of the 1972 Marine Mammal Protection Act, which prohibited the hunting, killing, capturing or harassment of marine mammals like seals and dolphins. Meanwhile, the great white shark received limited protections from the federal government in 1997 that are believed to have increased its population.
Blair Perkins has lived on Nantucket since 1963 and fished there his whole life. Since 1999, he’s run Shearwater Excursions, an eco-tourism business that offers a variety of cruises, including seal tours. “Seals may be pretty good at taking a striper off a hook and line,” he said, “but I’ve scuba-dived with the seals off Muskeget in the summertime and have seen them interacting with stripers. My observation is that the seals just aren’t fast or maneuverable enough to catch those fish.” [links]
Striper anglers and seals continue to clash on Cape Cod and in a growing number of places in the Northeast.
So, maybe seals don’t eat that many stripers, but what’s eating the seals (cue music from Jaws). There is a direct correlation between the increasing abundance of seals on the Cape and Islands and the growing presence of great white sharks. Greg Skomal, senior fisheries scientist at the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries (DMF) in New Bedford, has been studying sharks for over 35 years and heads up the Massachusetts Shark Research Program. The first reports of white sharks near the Cape began in the mid-2000s. “Seals were starting to be everywhere, and as fishermen began to take notice, so did the sharks. We were getting more reports each summer of dead seals on the beach with wounds that could only be attributed to white sharks. In 2009, I got a call from a spotter pilot who saw white sharks off the Outer Cape. It’s been a pretty steady increase since then.” Dr. Skomal oversees a program that captures sharks and tags them with accelerometers that detect their every movement. The program has tagged 238 white sharks to date, including 50 in 2019 alone. [links]
Massachusetts passed legislation to protect seals in 1965, but the big game-changer was the passage of the Marine Mammals Protection Act of 1972. According to the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC), the Act recognized that human activities were threatening marine mammals following “public outrage over the hundreds of thousands of dolphins killed in pursuit of tuna and the slaughter of baby seals for their fur.” The Act outlawed “hunting, killing, capture, and/or harassment of marine mammals” and placed a moratorium on import, export, and sale of any marine mammal or product derived from it. The blanket protection provided by this legislation is singularly responsible for the comeback of seals in Massachusetts waters, not to mention the protection and recovery of many whale and dolphin species, polar bears, walruses, sea otters, and manatees. here
“Ten years ago, we never saw seals, but now they’re everywhere,” said Willy Hatch, who’s been fishing the Cape and Islands for over 25 years as the captain of Machaca Charters in Falmouth. “They’re at Squibnocket Beach, Vineyard Sound, the Elizabeth Islands, Woods Hole, the Muskeget Channel. Often, the seals hear me anchor up and set up behind my boat. If I manage to hook a fish, a seal takes it right off my line. It gets worse every year as their population increases and their range expands.”
If India has its snake-charmers, the Fiji Islands have their shark-charmers. Twice a year, to avert the sharks from attacking them, the Fijians would indulge in the 'ceremony of kissing the shark". Father Laplante was a missionary in these islands up to 1938 and told how the sharks were captured in a large net, turned over on to their backs by the slightly drugged officiating ministers, before being kissed on the stomach. The missionary was astonished that on each occasion the sharks, once kissed, stopped moving, 'as if the men had an occult power that I wouldn't know how to define". This custom experienced a renewal of interest in 1960, at Fort Lauderdale in Florida, when students made it an initiation rite for new pupils. The police put an end to this very unusual ragging by putting a close guard on the shark they named "Freddy", before returning it to the sea. Although it measured only 1.5 metres, it was a Tiger Shark.
That night, while a collection is being made for Bruder's mother, motorboats equipped with searchlights are launched for a futile pursuit. The crew members ara armed with guns for patrolling, and fishermen set tens of lines with mutton which is reputed to be the best bait. 'I am certain that two or three days from now the beaches will be safe", Senator Hill declares. Not one shark is captured, shot or even seen. [links]
In the countries where such things take place, many journalists dream of covering a shark attack. One of them even left a town in the center of Oregon for another on the coast, just to be first to cover the next attack. It is true that any shark attack will always be a newsworthy event as long as it remains exceptional. Imagine an American reading on page five of his newspaper of 30th June: 'About 250 people will die during this first summer weekend on all the nation's beaches, through attacks by sharks. This figure represents a very clear improvement on the 375 attacks in 1990, before the speed limit of 55km/h prevented a considerable crowd from getting to the beaches more quickly . here
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