Chatham's accidental tourist
No stranger to great white shark sightings, Cape town takes latest warnings in stride
CHATHAM -- The most fearsome predator to roam the seas may be lurking beneath the waves just hundreds of yards off Chatham's windswept shore. But town residents and tourists who inundate the bustling resort act as if there is nothing at all to worry about.
On the popular South Beach yesterday, near where officials believe that a great white shark lunched on a seal over the weekend, people strolled at the water's edge or trained binoculars and cameras on packs of seals swimming just offshore. Children blithely splashed in the water.
"I guess they'll go for the seals first," shrugged Claire Jones, 49, of Great Falls, Va., who watched her son, Sawyer, and Sawyer's friend Teddy Geraghty, both 11, skimboard not far from the spot where the mangled carcass of a half-eaten seal was recovered Monday.
On the flower-lined Main Street, tourists ducked in and out of cafes and quaint boutiques, stopping at a white clapboard booth where Chatham Chamber of Commerce volunteers gave directions to shops, galleries, and, yes, beaches.
Business leaders in Chatham were anxious to avoid sounding alarmist; the town issued a public notice Tuesday, warning people not to swim close to seals and to watch out for the maritime predator. But the notice was not on display in downtown Chatham yesterday, not at the town office on Main Street, not at the information booth.
"We feel as though there's not a danger," said Pauline DiRocco of the Chatham Chamber.
Chatham is not a stranger to sightings of a sea predator also known as white death: 15 to 20 feet of muscle, cartilage, and teeth.
In 2004, a 1,700-pound great white shark was trapped in a lagoon on Naushon Island off Falmouth for two weeks. Earlier this month, a seal was attacked near Chatham's North Beach. Shark specialists believe that a great white was responsible.
Great whites rarely attack humans, and the last shark-related death in New England was in 1936. Some say that sharks are coming nearer shore these days as they pursue seals, one of the great white shark's favorite foods, which inhabit more of the coastline as seal populations expand. Chatham is now the year-round home for a few thousand seals, the town estimates.
Marine specialists believe that some shark attacks on humans have happened because the sharks have mistaken people for seals.
Chatham fishermen, who compete with seals for their catches, celebrated the arrival of the great white.
"I hope he stays around, and I hope he eats some more seals," said Bruce Peters, 52, a commercial fisherman who was about to take tourists to fish for striped bass and tuna off the shore of Cape Cod in his 34-foot motorboat.
Peters and other fishermen on the Chatham Fish Pier reminisced fondly about the days when they were paid to kill seals, which are now a federally protected species.
On South Beach, Joe and Rachel Bradley of Rochester, N.Y., said the 20-knot southwest gusts that kept toppling their rainbow-colored beach chair bothered them more than the dreaded sea predator. The couple was planning to return to the beach later in the evening, prime shark feeding time, to drink some wine under the stars.
"Not going in the water, though," said Rachel Bradley, 39, an insurance agent. "We don't get insurance for shark bites." 