Sharks Drive Swimmers From Ocean, But Not Tourists From Cape Cod

CAPE COD, MA – If the sight of sharks prowling close to shore worries Candy Collins-Boden, she isn't showing it. The executive director of the Provincetown Chamber of Commerce said visitors have only one thing on their minds:

"Are the beaches open today?"

Brave words from beachgoers at the tip of Cape Cod, where in the neighboring town of Truro a man was bitten by a shark just two days earlier and remained in serious condition Friday. Provincetown had its own scare the next day, when a shark ripped apart a seal close to shore and sent swimmers fleeing at Race Point Beach.

"Out of the water!" a woman screamed as she took out her phone to film the attack. It could have been a scene from "Jaws" left on the cutting room floor.

Amid the first attack on a human in six years and shark sightings seemingly every day, officials have closed beaches in several towns and issued extra warnings at others. But it's not slowing down the crowds of tourists that flock to the Cape's beaches every year.

"In a weird way, having the sharks here has almost proved to be an attraction to folks," Collins-Boden told Patch.

An attraction that can eat you for dinner, to be sure, but one the Cape needs. Collins-Boden's town relies heavily on the summer season to support its economy the rest of the year; she couldn't put an exact figure on it, but she described the tourism industry as Provincetown's "major economic engine."

And with the winter's cold spilling over into April, May and part of June this year, the town had a limited window to work with.

"Our biggest detriment is the season isn't long enough," Collins-Boden said.

Steve Roderick, president of the Truro Chamber of Commerce, told Patch he hoped Wednesday's attack off the coast of his town – the Cape's third in over 20 years, he said – would not be "overblown." Truro has had what Roderick described as a "pretty strong summer" economically and he remained confident Friday that visitors would stay safe.

"There's always a concern, but we feel like it's an isolated incident and that we as a community remain pretty aware that there's sharks and seals in the water," he said, praising the collaboration between the Coast Guard, Park Service and lifeguards that alerts people to nearby shark activity.

Despite sharks making headlines lately, the chances of getting attacked by one still remain exceedingly slim. The Atlantic White Shark Conservancy reminded people this week that "encounters with white sharks in which people suffer injuries are as terrifying as they are rare."

"Sharks are not known to target people specifically and when they do bite people it's usually a case of mistaken identity," the organization added.

And the sharks keep coming. Friday alone saw at least three sightings: one as far south as Barnstable Harbor – a rare occurrence on the Upper Cape – one in Sandwich and one in Eastham, shutting down Coast Guard Beach.

Swimming resumed an hour later.

Photo Credit: SeaTops / imageBROKER/Shutterstock