Around New England

Private Group Trying To Raise Money for Shark Detector Buoys on Cape Cod; Red Tape Likely

March 29, 2019

A Wellfleet resident has raised $40,000 toward a goal of $200,000 on a GoFundMe web site to lease two buoys that are designed to warn swimmers about the presence of a shark.

The Arthur Clever Buoy Pilot, as founder Heather Doyle calls it, is named for Arthur Medici, a Brazil native and Revere resident who was attacked and killed by a great white shark off a beach in Wellfleet on September 15, 2018.

“Transponders on the ocean floor send sonar signals upward that can detect the shape and swimming patterns of sharks, using an algorithm. Information is sent to a buoy on the surface that relays potential shark detections to shore and is capable of sounding an alarm to alert water users,” according to The Cape Cod Times.

Many Cape Cod residents have expressed frustration with the lack of an aggressive plan to try to protect swimmers and surfers in the increasingly shark-infested waters of the Outer Cape.

One man was bitten and seriously wounded on August 15 last year, a month before Medici was killed.

Sharks are attracted to the Cape because of the superabundance of seals, particularly in the summer and early fall.

Neither the towns on the Cape nor the state nor the Cape Cod National Seashore has come up with a plan to try to protect swimmers and surfers.

The superintendent of Cape Cod National Seashore told the Cape Cod Times he foresees what the newspaper described as “layers of time-consuming permitting” and doubts the buoys could be tested at the federally overseen beaches of the Outer Cape this coming summer.