Great White Shark Alarms Installed At Cape Cod Beach

WELLFLEET, MA — A group dedicated to safe ocean recreation implemented new technology to warn Cape Cod beachgoers when great white sharks are in the water — even when lifeguards aren't on duty.

Cape Cod Ocean Community demonstrated the new technology Thursday morning at LeCount Hollow Beach in Wellfleet, the Cape Cod Times reported. The shark detector system was designed by Moosh Systems and is set up on a private dune overlooking the beach. When tagged sharks are nearby, the system receives a phone notification from the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries. Then, the system will sound an alarm with red and white flashing lights.

Cape Cod's coast has the largest population of great white sharks on the east coast. In September 2018, the Cape had the first shark attack fatality in Massachusetts in 82 years, when Arthur Medici, 26, of Revere died when he was bitten while boogie boarding at Newcomb Hollow Beach in Wellfleet.

Shark attacks on Cape Cod are rare. There have been eight recorded shark attacks in the region, going as far back as 1751, but the majority of them weren't fatal. There have been two fatal attacks on the Cape, one which happened in 1751, when someone died while swimming off the coast of Sandwich.

But with five attacks in Massachusetts since 2016, some residents and tourists, especially on Cape Cod, are thinking twice before swimming in the ocean.

At the very least, some are taking new precautions.

The sale of electronic shark deterrents rose on Cape Cod over the last few years. The devices use an electric field to repel sharks and can be attached to a person's ankle, surf board or scuba gear. Australian shark researchers say the device could prevent thousands of shark bites.

Shark researchers in Massachusetts have also been hard at work creating a computer model that will predict the likelihood of sharks at beaches based off water temperatures