09-09-2009, 08:57 AM
5 tagged now.
CHATHAM ⿿ This town has great beaches, great restaurants ⿿ and now great white sharks that are reluctant to move on.
The continued presence of as many as 10 to 20 of the solitary predators near Chatham's Atlantic beaches prompted town officials yesterday to close the town's beaches to swimming indefinitely, Parks and Beaches Director Dan Tobin said. "From what we hear, they won't leave until the water temperatures drops into the 50s."
The water temperature change isn't likely for a few weeks, state shark expert Greg Skomal said after several days of chasing the sharks off Chatham's coast with harpoonist and fisherman William Chaprales of Marstons Mills on his 32-foot boat, the Ezduzit, now out of Sandwich.
Since Saturday, Skomal, a senior biologist with the state Division of Marine Fisheries, Chaprales, and his son and boat pilot Nick Chaprales, have tagged five great white sharks with data loggers. The electronic tags may help answer many of the lingering questions about the species.
CHATHAM ⿿ This town has great beaches, great restaurants ⿿ and now great white sharks that are reluctant to move on.
The continued presence of as many as 10 to 20 of the solitary predators near Chatham's Atlantic beaches prompted town officials yesterday to close the town's beaches to swimming indefinitely, Parks and Beaches Director Dan Tobin said. "From what we hear, they won't leave until the water temperatures drops into the 50s."
The water temperature change isn't likely for a few weeks, state shark expert Greg Skomal said after several days of chasing the sharks off Chatham's coast with harpoonist and fisherman William Chaprales of Marstons Mills on his 32-foot boat, the Ezduzit, now out of Sandwich.
Since Saturday, Skomal, a senior biologist with the state Division of Marine Fisheries, Chaprales, and his son and boat pilot Nick Chaprales, have tagged five great white sharks with data loggers. The electronic tags may help answer many of the lingering questions about the species.