Cape Cod beaches shut down to swimming as more shark sightings light up Sharktivity app

Another summer weekend at the Cape means more shark alerts, sightings and detections flooding the Sharktivity app.

Cape beaches temporarily shut down to swimming on Sunday after great white sharks were spotted and detected close to shore, according to the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy’s Sharktivity app.

Around 9:53 a.m. on Sunday, a white shark was spotted at the surface a few hundred yards off of Nauset Beach in Orleans.

“SHARK ALERT !!,” tweeted MA Sharks, which is run by local shark expert John Chisholm, who also confirms shark sightings for the Sharktivity app. “Due to white shark sighting the water will be closed to swimming at Nauset Public Beach until 11:00 A.M.”

The 11-foot male tagged white shark named Dylan was also detected at the LeCount Hollow Beach buoy in Wellfleet Sunday morning.

“SHARK ALERT !!,” MA Sharks tweeted again. “Swimming closes at LeCount Hollow until 12:15 due to detection of a tagged white shark.”

Other shark sightings on Sunday included a pilot spotting a white shark about 100 yards offshore south of Nauset Inlet, along with a pilot seeing a shark off of Ballston Beach in Truro.

Shark sightings and detections have been rising in recent weeks as great whites migrate to the Cape to hunt for seals.

Also, sharks have been spotted more and more off the Maine coast. On Saturday, one of the confirmed sightings on the Sharktivity app included a white shark injuring a seal off of Georgetown Island in Maine.

A spotter up north also took a video of a white shark off Harpswell, Maine, which was the site of the state’s first deadly shark attack in 2020.

“White shark video’d off Harpswell, Maine yesterday,” MA Sharks tweeted. “If you’re lucky enough to see a white shark, be a #citizenscientists and submit your sighting on the @Sharktivity app.”