Beware: Consider the Shark’s POV

There has been a lot of fuss n’ holler here in New England for a few years now about the growing population of great white sharks off Chatham on Cape Cod. This is, after all, Jaws country. So, some people start wondering whether it is safe to continue going back in the water while others are off making T-shirts like this one or mugs or toys or anything else that might net them a few bucks.

As is so often the case, the facts dispel the concerns. Firstly, you cannot walk from the Chatham beaches to Monomoy Island without getting your feet wet by crossing on the backs of the sharks. In fact, most of the people who go looking for them don’t find them. Secondly, the sharks that are there are not cruising the shallows near the beaches looking for tasty, slow moving humans in bathing suits. They are after the seals and it is the booming seal population that has led to the increase in the number of great whites in the area. In other words, it is a classic example of nature doing its thing. An increase in the population of a species leads to an increase in the corresponding predator’s population.

Now, all of this is not to suggest that the beach closings that have become a periodic event each summer are unwarranted. If a shark is spotted in the area, officials try to get everyone out of the water quickly and keep them out until well after the shark exits. Rightly so. After all, you never know what a human being might do. People do things like jump off a moving train into the zoo habitat of a Siberian tiger, for example.

But I would suggest that more careful thought should be given to what the scientists are doing out there in their boats while they study the sharks. I read this article about a research vessel that is new to Chatham waters, the a-bit-too-cleverly-named Ocearch. Like other vessels that are there, the Ocearch is busy finding and tagging great whites so that the population can be better tracked and studied.

Fine. Better than fine, actually, because they are attaching a tag that pings a satellite every time the dorsal fin breaks the surface and you can see online where the sharks have been. This, of course, is tremendously helpful to those folks standing at the waters edge wondering if they can go swimming.

(Man staring out to sea, inflatable sea horse tucked under his arm.) “Is it safe, honey?”
(Woman whips out her smartphone from somewhere in her bikini.) “I’ve got an app for that.”

But, the intrepid crew of the Ocearch are doing other things as well:

The Ocearch crew tags great white sharks in an unorthodox way. Unlike Skomal’s team, which has tagged a dozen great  whites off the Massachusetts coast with harpoons, Chris Fischer’s Ocearch crew baits the fish and leads them onto a large platform that lifts them out of the water for tagging and collecting blood, tissue and semen samples.

Now…if I were a shark, I think I would probably take exception to that. Give me a tag on my dorsal fin and it’s like a piercing, right? I’m hip. I’m edgy. But, you start messing with other stuff?

Well. I’m a bit concerned the sharks may reevaluate their level of interest in dining on slow moving bipeds.

Just sayin’.

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What I Did During Summer Vacation – Part 2

Ok, now we’re done.  Which is good since 3/4 of us are now sick.  My younger son and I are sporting head colds.  My older son has been having a devil of a time since contracting Lyme disease.  We’re pretty sure it happened while camping in Cooperstown.  He’ll be fine, but there have been issues with prescriptions he was given.

We spent another week enjoying Cape Cod, celebrating my Dad’s birthday and my wife and my 15th wedding anniversary along the way.  My in-laws were with us this time, and it’s always great to have more of our collective family gathered.  We weren’t committed to a baseball clinic every morning this time, but the weather early in the week was gloomy.  So, the first day, we tried to go bowling at Cape Cod Bowl.  Mob scene.  So we went home and watched The Incredibles and a splendid time was had by all.

The next day was more mixed, so we headed out to the Cape Cod Museum of Natural History, which, along with the Brewster tidal flats, has become one of my favorite Cape destinations in recent years.  Lucky us, there was a beekeeping demonstration that day.  Along with everyone else, I donned a fabulously fashionable bee-detering hat:

And followed our guide, feeling just slightly more like Neil Gaiman, which was  a welcome sensation.  We actually do talk every so often about adding beekeeping to the mix in our yard.  Nothing serious, but we’re both intrigued, which is a good first step.  The kids had a great time seeling lots of bees up close:

And let drones clamber all over their hands, arms, and headgear.  Afterwards, we headed down the path to the tidal flats.  It was my first time seeing them at high tide.  At low tide, they are a massive expanse of sandbars and tidal pools.  At high tide:

The sea has come in and created islands of grass.  The whole area becomes one big wading pool, although you do need to keep track of where the two rivers that empty into it are or you’ll step off into a much deeper area.  We knew where they were, so we just spent awhile wading around:

Looking for creatures.  Mostly we just found a lot of hermit crabs and small fish.  A couple of tiny blue crabs.  Not nearly as many things as I’d hoped, so I wandered further and further out into channels between the grass islands:

Until my wife was shouting warnings about mythical marsh monsters and I was miming being dragged down out of view by them.  What I really wanted was my bathing suit, face mask, and snorkel, but it wasn’t that warm so I hadn’t bothered.  But it would have been loads of fun to swim the channels.  Next time.

Meanwhile, my younger son was having fun including Snuffles (his stuffed armadillo) in the adventure.  Snuffles climbed a tree (ok, with some help) to take in the view:

Before settling down on the beach to guard our stuff while we all wandered around in the water (he distrusts water, I’m told):

And, really, I can understand his feelings, because later on, after he did wind up taking a tumble into some sea water on the hike back, this is what was in store for him back at the house:

And, honestly, who among us would remember such an experience with fondness?

The weather turned more summery for the remainder of the week.  We made a couple more trips to our favorite beach, getting absolutely pummeled by surf on the last day.  We visited the Green Briar Nature Center, which is run by the Thornton W. Burgess Society.  All of us love Burgess’ books and we have some collector worthy volumes along with quite a few mass paperback editions.  A final night out to The Lobster Boat Restaurant and Cape Cod Creamery and we said goodbye to the Cape for another summer.

Back home, we went to see Rise of the Planet of the Apes, which is deservedly getting a lot of positive critical attention and enjoying box office success.  I had little interest in seeing it originally.  I’m not among the long-term fan base of the franchise and the first trailer I saw focused mainly on the mayhem at the end.  The onlyApes film I’d seen (2001’s Tim Burton version) was awful.  But then I learned Andy Serkis plays Ceasar, the lead ape, and then I heard an interview with him about it, and then I saw a different trailer that focused more on the characters and story (almost too much so) and I was hooked.  It’s worth seeing, both as a well-done science fiction film and also to observe the continuing evolution of motion capture performance acting.  Recommended.

So, now I’m home, and real life is pouring in all around, and I really am trying to get healthy to tackle it all so I’m going to sign off and go to bed.  ’til next time.

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