Watch out for Jaws this July 4. On Friday, the U.S. Coast Guard First District issued a shark advisory off the waters of New England. The warning came just days after a fishing boat crew caught and released a 7-foot juvenile great white shark about 20 miles off the Massachusetts coast. Of course, nobody wants a close encounter of the man-eating fish kind on a holiday weekend. Still, beachgoers at Cove Island Park weren't scared away from the surf.
"You can't live in fear," said Annie Hogan, whose niece Maura and nephew Aidan had already taken a dip. "They'll probably go in again, tooit's getting hot!"
Jean Luciano didn't keep 12-year-old daughter Dana out of the water, either. "I don't let her go that far in anyway, because I don't want to have to go in after her," she said. Lisa Alvarez and Madeleine Edens felt similarly safe staying close to shore. "I can't get past the dirt, so I'm not going to get out far enough to see any sharks," said Lisa, poking the foot-punishing rocky sand at the water's edge with her toe.
One local didn't share the shallow-is-safe theory. "I was on the beach in Daytona last year, and I swam real far out," said Gary Dartisto. "The day after I was there, an 18-year-old kid got his foot bit right off by a shark, and he was only in ankle-deep water."
Experts point to an abundance of seals, particularly in the Cape Cod area, as the reason for increased shark sightings. Our advice? Stay away from seals.
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