Ever since Marbleheader and avid swimmer Jane Bianchi saw a recent video of a shark at Halfway Rock about 4 miles east of Marblehead, she wears a shark deterrent band on her ankle. She’s also more cautious about where and when she swims.
“I live on my Sharktivity App to see where they’re located,” said Bianchi. “I’m also hoping that my magnetic bracelet helps, and obviously I won’t go at dusk or dawn.”
In the last few weeks, several photos and videos have surfaced on social media of sharks in Marblehead waters, including one inside the harbor, that have worried residents.
“We have had approximately four sightings,” Harbormaster Mark Souza told the Current. “Based on video and descriptions, all have been confirmed to be basking sharks.”
But that doesn’t mean the great whites aren’t there.
Last week, local lobsterman Matt Finn recorded a close-up of a large shark just past Halfway Rock.
“Everyone said that it’s a basking shark, but this thing moved completely differently, and it was massive. It had to be 17 foot long,” said Finn. “If you saw the nose of the shark, it didn’t look like a basking shark. It didn’t have its mouth open. It didn’t have the exposed gills that a basking shark has.”
Finn said friends had seen two great whites 6 or 7 miles from that spot a few days before.
“We’re all seeing them. We know they’re out there,” he added.
The Atlantic White Shark Conservancy estimated that from 2015-2018 there were 800 great white sharks in Massachusetts waters. The population is still increasing as seal populations continue to recover since the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972. Just this week, there were 16 great white sightings confirmed off the coast of New England, including two in Maine, one on the South Shore and one on the North Shore.
Marblehead resident Arthur Beauchesne, who has been surfing in Marblehead since 1984, has seen many over the years, sometimes too close for comfort.
“In 2022, while I was surfing at Devereux, I had a small juvenile great white swim directly under me during a summer swell in August,” said Beauchesne. “I’ve been surfing since 1984 and it seems that sightings have become way more frequent with an ever-increasing number each year. The local seal population has drastically increased, so with a food source here, the sharks have increased too.”
Photographer and recreational fisherman Rick Cuzner has seen six sharks in the Marblehead area in July alone. He said that four were probably basking sharks, one was a blue shark and the other one was possibly a great white shark. He filmed the video of a shark out at Halfway Rock that worried Jane Bianchi and is still unsure if what he filmed was a great white, or a basking shark.
“I approached the fin and when I got to it, it went underwater,” said Cuzner. “You can kind of see it in the shadows. That one we don’t know if it’s a basking shark or a great white.”
Despite the growing population and publicity of the North Shore sharks, Cuzner doesn’t think there’s much cause to worry. However, there are some places he’d rather not swim.
“There is a huge seal colony right off Devereux Beach so I’m not sure I’d go swimming in the open water out there,” said Cuzner. “But it’s not like we’re finding attacked seals or anything like that. But that’s going to come up at some point.”
While most agree that we shouldn’t be constantly afraid of the sharks, we should still be aware that we are visitors in their home.
“You need to be aware that when you enter the water you are in their environment,” said Beauchesne. “My dad used to say if there’s salt in the water, then there’s sharks in the water. We are just visiting their domain.”
Grey Collins, a rising Marblehead High School junior, contributes photography and writing to the Current.
