Massachusetts Beach Closed After Shark Sightings

(July 31) -- Think twice before cooling off in these waters.

Officials closed a popular Cape Cod beach to swimmers Friday after reports of multiple great white sharks in the water.

One 14-feet long shark, estimated to weight 1,500 pounds, was seen only 100 yards from a group of swimmers, including children, celebrating a birthday party.

"There were enough people in the water in close enough proximity to the sharks that we decided the prudent thing to do would be to close the beach," Chatham Harbor Master Stuart Smith said, according to The Boston Herald.

South Beach is a 4.5-mile peninsula off the elbow of Cape Cod, the Boston Globe reported. The beach is normally not publicly guarded, and is accessible only by foot and by boat.

"It is remote and rural, but it's popular,'' Smith said.

The swimming ban applies to the South Beach eastern shore and will be in force for an indefinite period of time.

The decision to close the beach came after a plane contracted the state spotted at least five great white sharks lurking in waters off the coast, The Boston Globe reported.

"They're spread all up and down that beach,'' pilot George Breen, said.

Sharks have become a more common sight off the shores of Massachusetts in the last year or so, including great white sharks.

Breen told The Boston Globe that he had only seen handful of great whites in his 30 years of flying before last summer. But he says he saw a dozen in one day in September. He has spotted sharks in seven of the eight days he has flown this summer.

The Division of Marine Fisheries says that the sharks are attracted by the growing number of seals in the area. The seal population is on the rise thanks to the animal's status as a protected species.

Authorities have been tagging the sharks, which allows them to track the movements of the animals, according to Cape Cod Shark Hunters.

"Tag a shark, save a tourist!" the group says on its website.

Still, not everyone at South Beach took the ban seriously. Swimmers were seen taking a dip, and some took a philosophical approach to the fishy dangers.

"I'd be more afraid to be hit by a car than to get in a shark accident,'' Nicola Massarotti told The Boston Globe after leaving the water.