Shark Threat Closes Cape Cod Beaches

Two sharks spotted; great white found dead near state border
By Matt Cantor,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 3, 2012 11:00 AM CDT
Shark Threat Closes Cape Cod Beaches
This file photo provided by the Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce shows Coast Guard Beach in Cape Cod, Mass.   (AP Photo/Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce, Margo Tabb, File)

A Labor Day disappointment on Cape Cod: Beaches have shut down along much of the coast thanks to shark trouble. Officials have banned swimming at several top sites after a pair of sightings, CBS News reports. The animals seem to be appearing more frequently lately; earlier this summer, a man was reportedly bitten by a great white off Truro for the first time in 75 years.

"White sharks have probably been drawn into the area by a really large increase in the number of grey seals that are in the area," says an expert. And the sightings aren't limited to the Cape: A 1,500-pound shark turned up dead this weekend on the Massachusetts side of the Massachusetts-Rhode Island border. A biologist performed a necropsy, but officials aren't sure what killed the creature. They're going to leave it on the rocky shore, hoping the tide might eventually carry it out to sea: "There's really no means to move an animal of that size," a spokeswoman tells the AP. (More Cape Cod stories.)

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