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(water sloshing)
(wind rustling)
- (waves cresting) - (seagulls calling)
Lifeguard: Okay, um... one thing that we need to keep in mind,
let's say we get a ping on the shark buoy.
If you use the phone to let somebody know,
you still need to, like, let the other beaches know.
The other thing is, is that
if you close your beach because you visually see a shark,
you need to let your parking lot person know.
If it's not a confirmed sighting,
you're closing the beach,
you know, it's... it's-it, it's on you.
Any questions?
Okay.
Person: Have a great day.
(solemn music playing)
Definitely now it's a lot more stressful and less carefree.
We still have all the hazards that we dealt with before,
like rip currents and all of those things.
And then on top of that, we have this
additional hazard called white sharks.
- How are you? - Person: It's very hot.
Suzy Blake: It's good to see you. I know.
I'm glad you're back this summer.
Person: Me too.
Police Officer: Thanks for coming out to
Cape Cod National Seashore.
It's a wild marine environment,
with sharks returning as the top predators.
Sharks are here. They're a dangerous animal.
Recreation has been established in their absence.
That is what is so unique about Cape Cod
relative to other areas
where sharks are present around the world.
Blake: So this is our boat. This was new last year.
We got a lot of new tools and equipment
after the fatality.
If we see people swimming far out, it makes us nervous,
so we will tell them to come in.
That's another new thing that has come about
because of the sharks.
♪ ♪
How big do you think they are?
Blake: Well, we get a lot of different ones,
and they'll be anywhere from like eight feet
all the way up to like 14, 15 feet.
It's such an incredible thing that's, um, happening here.
But, you know, I realize that
not everybody-- not everybody sees it that way.
When you're at a place like Cape Cod where,
let's face it, multiple species love this area for different reasons,
um, and there's overlap here of white sharks and humans.
And it's hard because a lot of people who have lived here for decades,
they didn't have to think about this
until the past 10 years or so.
And so it's been a big-- a big shift for them.
- GoPros? - GoPros.
- All the accoutrements. - Check. Yes.
(contemplative music playing)
- Hi, folks. - Beachgoer: How are ya?
Good. Good. Have a good time out there?
Beachgoer: Yeah, so let them people know,
as they're coming in there was a shark sighting,
so they can't get in the water for at least another 45 minutes.
Oh, yeah. You-- I told-- I forgot to tell them, yeah.
Hi. Good. How are you?
- I'm good. - Good.
How you been? Staying out of trouble?
Oh, come on. That's no fun.
- (laughs) - Yeah.
Bye-bye.
(groans)
Guide (on microphone): And the spring line is clear.
No turning back now.
You're on for the whale watch.
(indistinct chatter)
Guide: Now, what are we gonna see?
Uh, fin whale, humpback whale, minke whale.
Uh, we do occasionally see great white sharks out here.
But you won't see a shark unless it's feeding.
And if it is, it's very colorful.
(dramatic music playing)
(music fades)
(wind rustling)
(rainfall)
Paul Tasha: Remember that year when you were seeing an average of like...
four or five sharks every day?
Tom Smith: Oh, yeah. I didn't even wanna tell you how many I saw that day.
One came up next to the boat in shallow water.
We were hauling back.
It literally took my breath away.
It was-- honest to God, I'm not exaggerating.
It was like "Jaws."
Tasha: I'll tell you why I believe you.
The only one I got a really good look at underwater
was that kind of big.
And I'm looking at it, and, you know, it just had
that slow, massive look to it,
like, I mean, do fucking great whites even get that big?
It, it had to be like, this big a-- I'm not shitting you.
It was like this fucking big around.
The only two I've seen was when it was really good visibility,
which leads me to wonder how many I didn't see when it was shitty and murky.
(men laughing)
(contemplative music playing)
Alec Wilkinson: There was a time some years ago
that I was writing about scientists
who were working with the sharks in Cape Cod.
They arrived with all the fanfare of saying,
oh, they'll be tagging all these sharks,
catching all these sharks.
Well, they caught two the entire expedition.
And I went out there, you know, on my first day,
went thinking I'd see a shark, and that'd be it,
and I'd go home and write my piece.
Well, I had to keep going back for 11 days.
The sharks weren't abundant then.
They would be quite some distance from shore.
Every once in a while,
they'd be found near shore, maybe near Chatham,
but they were, were not near the beaches.
Beachgoer: Okay. We're in Truro at Ballston Beach,
where someone's been... I don't know what.
Do we know what happened here, anyone?
Bitten by something or...?
Reporter: Chris Myers was in the water with his son
when a great white sunk his teeth into his leg.
He managed to get free and was taken to the hospital
with eight deep gouges and some torn tendons.
Wilkinson: It seemed like more and more sharks
were arriving each year, and suddenly,
you're really getting them near the beaches.
In August of 2018,
we were on the beach one afternoon about to go in the water
when we heard what sounded like shouting,
maybe a hundred yards down the beach.
Dispatcher (on radio): Call at Longnook Beach for a subject
possibly bitten by a shark in the thigh.
Jeff Souza: We got a call for a possible shark bite
at Longnook Beach.
I said, "Oh, there's no way this is a shark bite,
because it's very rare around here."
But once I saw it,
I knew that it was not just something small.
This was like something completely different.
He was bleeding considerably. He had been bitten on the leg.
Reporter: Sixty-two-year-old William Lytton
attacked in waist-deep water off Truro Beach.
Reporter 2: He escaped by punching
the shark in the gills,
something he had seen on a nature show.
Wilkinson: But not until
the poor boy was killed in Wellfleet,
did it really seem like, "Okay, now they're here."
(tense music playing)
Dana Franchitto: It was such a joyous summer day.
Late summer day.
Everybody's having fun,
whether you're surfing, boogie boarding,
swimming, beachcombing.
Drew Taylor: As good as a day you could ask for on the Cape.
And, like, families were on the beach and there were surf breaks all over.
And then Arthur was down here with his,
you know, good friend, uh, Isaac.
Reporter: Twenty-six-year-old Arthur Medici,
on his boogie board with his friend, Isaac Rocha...
Mitzi Riley: About 9:30, I was by myself.
I walked way down the beach, same as always.
And there was two people in the water already with their boogie boards,
putting on an incredible show,
and I was their little personal cheerleader up on the hill.
(chuckles)
I heard a tone.
And as I stood, I saw the blood.
Isaac was screaming at the top of his lungs
to help him, help him, help him.
Now, I'm looking down that hill and I says,
(breathlessly) "Just what the fuck are you going to do?"
I went in.
A wave came up over Arthur's face
and I got underneath and pulled him up on top of me,
because we couldn't move him any further.
I did look down at one point,
and saw that his legs were kind of laced open,
but no blood.
There was no blood around us.
All the blood was... long gone.
I, uh... told both boys how much I loved them
and I kissed them both and hollered for God,
and cried and waited for help to come.
I had no clue what the hell had just happened.
(indistinct chatter)
Beachgoer (on phone): I'm at, uh, Newcomb Hollow Beach
in Wellfleet, Massachusetts.
I've just seen a surfer get bit by a shark.
It's about 300 yards down the beach.
- I saw the whole thing happen. - Dispatcher: Okay. Okay, sir--
Beachgoer: But It was a hell of a hit, man.
I saw the whole thing happen.
It looks like they're carrying him
off the beach right now.
Reporter (on radio): At this time,
I have a report of an unknown shark bite.
Riley: The lifeguards were trying to work on him.
EMT (on radio): We have an unconscious male. Severe leg injuries.
(siren wailing)
Riley: There was no helping this poor boy.
(solemn music playing)
That morning I got the call.
We're inbound from a closed area way to the east,
70 miles to the east of P-Town.
And as soon as I got service, my daughter called.
She's like, "I think my friend got killed by a shark."
Franchitto: After he was taken away,
it was such a stunned silence.
We just didn't know.
We're kind of looking at each other like, "Wow.
Did we just get punched in the face?"
That's what it kind of felt like, you know?
(tense music playing)
That is just-- it's such a haunting story.
I feel so for his family and...
Violence can intersect any moment practically,
it seems like,
but one wouldn't have thought
of a sunny afternoon off the coast of New England
that a shadow was waiting.
Reporter: It's the first fatal shark attack Cape Cod has seen in more than 80 years.
Reporter 2: Officials ordered Newcomb Hollow Beach closed until further notice.
After a summer full of shark sightings on Cape Cod
and one previous nonfatal attack,
it's getting harder and harder to downplay the danger.
That was a turning point.
Town Official: (on microphone): Okay. So thank you.
It's now 6 p.m., September 27th, 2018,
and this is a meeting on sharks.
I wanna first start off saying that our town is very distraught
and sad about the loss of Arthur Medici.
It has affected all of us deeply.
Tonight, we are here to discuss what happened.
We have representatives,
experts that will answer questions
and give a brief description of what may be done
to improve safety on Cape Cod beaches.
Um, so we are getting a pretty good idea
of when sharks are here,
where they are when they're here.
We haven't seen any major changes
in their predatory behavior.
We have had a lot of reports
of sightings that people have sent in
that have gotten a lot of attention.
I wanna remind our elected officials
that the death of 26-year-old Arthur Medici
was not his fault, it was ours.
Government officials are sitting behind these tables
telling us, we the people,
we can't do anything in our own environment.
If you were standing there that day,
you'd be fighting for it.
This was a beautiful young man
who lost his life because we've been sitting doing nothing.
On the day that it happened, I think you were working.
- Right. - And it was just me and Mom down the Cape.
And I went to go grab my board,
and she's like, "You're absolutely not going out today."
I was like, "Why not? I just, like, worked a really hard shift.
"Like, I really wanna just go out surfing.
The waves are beautiful."
- And the waves are good, right? - Like, it's a no suit day.
It was a no suit day.
And I was like, "I'm gonna go," and she, like, stalled me
for like 30 minutes and so I was late going to the beach.
Because I told her, "Absolutely under no circumstances
"will you let the girls go out and surf
- without me being there." - Yeah.
That's where your mother put her foot down.
- Yeah. - And I'm glad she did because, you know--
She's the reason I wasn't in the water at the time.
John Kartsounis: Exactly.
Kartsounis (on microphone): Good evening, uh, everyone.
My name is John Kartsounis, Wellfleet resident.
I'm the father of three children,
two of which, uh, have been lifeguards in the past,
one is senior lifeguard.
My daughter was present during
Arthur Medici's, uh, fatal attack.
It was horrific.
She tried to help as best she could.
I've been surfing and swimming
in the outer beaches for 35 years.
Um, I won't allow my kids to go in anymore.
We have a problem here, ladies and gentlemen,
and the problem is manmade.
So-- excuse me. So thank you. I appreciate it.
I mean, there's lots of people here who feel that way about sharks--
Kartsounis: I think public safety
is an important issue.
- Yes. - That's the role of government.
Number-one role of government is public safety.
Not shark safety. Not shark conservation.
And I understand where some of the advocates on that side are coming from,
but not to be at the expense of humans.
And that's the issue here, and we have to address it.
And I hope you all take it very seriously.
Thank you.
(attendees applauding)
(birds squawking)
What you doing?
Meg Winton: Getting rubber bands to put around my wrist.
- This is how I work. - Oh. You want more?
Winton: I'm gonna get more. Just have them ready to go.
(contemplative music playing)
Winton: With the emergence of Cape Cod
as a new seasonal aggregation site for white sharks,
there's a lot of science going on off the coast here.
You hand me that... Meg, Megan?
Thanks.
Winton: All the research we're doing here
is really to learn more about these animals,
so that we can prevent the risk
of somebody having a bad interaction with a white shark.
You got any more, Wayne? This one's staying deep.
Wayne (over radio): Yep, uh...
There's one just on the other side of that guy.
It's on his port bow, it's a small one.
Yeah. That sounds good.
(over radio) Well, we like action.
Winton: The number one question I think we get asked is,
"How many of them are out there?"
And we haven't had an answer.
There's never been an actual number.
So part of our mission is to catalog the white sharks of Cape Cod.
Greg Skomal: We're gonna put out some acoustic tags,
which will be those long-term tags
that will be picked up by a, a receiver array.
Wayne (on radio): All right. Slow down. Slow down.
I'm in the glare here.
I should be right there pretty close now.
Just, just stop there, John. Just let them come to you.
Skomal: Yeah, he's down.
(Wayne speaking indistinctly)
Skomal: Are we ready to go?
- Captain: Yes, sir. - Skomal: Okay.
As long as he doesn't spook, we're--
I like the way it's acting.
A little zigzag action. He's down a little bit.
- Winton: Bobbing and weaving. - Skomal: I need him to slow down
'cause I don't wanna knock the tag off the pole.
Captain: The degree of difficulty is high on this one.
Skomal: Yeah. Look at this. It's a-- it's a wormy one.
Wayne (on radio): Down back if you need help.
Skomal: Down a little. Ah, don't turn.
Don't turn.
(groans)
- Oh! Damn. - Winton: Piece of work.
Skomal: Slow down.
Captain: Out of gear.
Winton: Nine feet of water.
Captain: Down pretty good.
- (Greg groans loudly) - Captain: Hold on, Greg.
Skomal: It's just enough.
We don't need that to pop off, you know?
(suspenseful music playing)
- Winton: You got him. - Captain: Good job! Nice job.
Skomal: Yeah!
Winton: All right, keep an eye! Keep an eye.
Oh, that's great.
Nice work. Victory, Captain.
There's an acoustic transmitter on that,
and that's gonna stay on.
That's why we use the dart. The dart's gonna hold that in.
That'll ping for 10 years.
(upbeat music playing)
- Winton: There she goes. - Skomal: All right, you can--
Winton: Every time a tagged shark swims by
one of our real-time receivers,
people will immediately see that information on their phone.
It's now integrated with our app, Sharktivity.
There's also information on which shark it was.
There's a photo of the shark.
It's really changed the way people think about sharks
off of our coastline,
and how frequently they occur near shore waters.
♪ ♪
(music fades)
Blake: Let's see if we're getting them.
Oh, so Joanie came by at 2:30 last night and left at 3:00.
- Who is that? Jodi? - Blake: Joanie.
- Lifeguard: Joanie? - Blake: (laughing) Yeah.
I-I don't know how big Joanie is, but--
All right. Hopefully, this will work today.
Lifeguard: We fly that all the time just so people know
that there are sharks in the water.
It's basically like you should go in at your own discretion.
- Blake: I-- - Lifeguard: However,
if we detect one on our buoy or see one,
then we get everyone out of the water and change it to a black flag.
- Beachgoer: Oh. To black? - Lifeguard: Yep.
- Beachgoer: Okay. Just wondered. - Lifeguard: Yep.
Blake: Have a great day.
I just saw a seal on the sandbar.
When we see a seal, it makes us nervous.
(ominous music playing)
Child: That is a shark!
Blake: Sharks are so stealth.
They just sneak up on their prey.
The seals are really agile so they can swim away really fast,
but obviously humans are not as agile.
♪ ♪
You can see that fish a mile away, huh?
Captain: Sucker's in shallow water, man.
- Sure is, huh? - Like, uh, motivated.
Captain: Eight feet here,
and it's seven feet and it's going in.
Skomal: It's got a pile of seals right there.
This sucker's hunting.
Wilkinson: Greg Skomal,
who is the one person on the east coast
who really knows what the circumstances are,
had always told me that sharks, so far as he could tell,
would not enter into the surf zone
because they had an instinctive fear of being breached.
Unhappily for me, he amended that last year to say, "Well...
"not sure anymore.
"We now have seen occasions where they go right into the surf after a seal.
If they're chasing something, they'll certainly go into the surf," he said.
(soft, discordant music playing)
(indistinct chatter)
- Lisa Sette: You see that? - Liz Bradfield: Oh, yeah. That's a seal coming.
- Sette: Is it? - Bradfield: Mm-hmm.
That one has a scar on its back.
It was-- I just saw a divot, you know?
D, can you photograph this?
- Bradfield: I will, yeah. - Yep.
Bradfield: Oh, yeah. Look at that.
(camera shutter clicking)
I can't see a wound. I see...
Bradfield: I mean, it's not like bloody or anything.
Sette: It's not-- it's like a healed divot.
Bradfield: No, that's not, that's too old, Lis.
- Do you see it? - Sette: I see it.
There's a white--
it looks white below the surface.
I don't live very far from here, and, um,
two years ago, I rode out here in August
and it was, uh, later in the afternoon,
and I got off my bike and I just looked out,
and there was a white shark.
And I was like, "Oh, wow."
I spent about an hour watching it.
And then seals started passing through
really close to shore, just traveling north or south.
And rafts of birds came in, boats were going by,
and I was just like,
we could do, like, a, a little behavioral study here,
and look at seal behavior and white shark behavior.
So, when we stand out here, what we're looking at is
basically how seals and white sharks transit,
or spend time right off the bluff here.
Oh, wait. We got a seal. Sorry. I have to get a--
Okay, Marjorie, you ready?
Ninety-four bearing.
I'm gonna get you distance.
- (camera shutter clicks) - 142 heading north.
Bradfield: Circling.
Oh, interaction.
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
There was a interaction between the first and third animal.
Uh, for some reason, the third animal got a little too close
and the first animal...
- Flipped around. - ...flipped around
and gave a body check. (laughs)
That was interesting.
Bradfield: That was interesting.
Sette: Seals can tell us a lot about th-the ocean environment.
They're a species that reflects back to us,
um, ecosystem health.
Bradfield: That makes them a great messenger for us,
and to be witnessing the recovery of a species.
You know, there's this whole idea
of shifting baselines, right?
That what you grew up with is what's "normal." (laughs)
And oftentimes the story of shifting baselines,
is of decrease.
But here, we're having a shifting of baselines upward with the seals,
and, and that's pretty, pretty amazing, too.
People saying, "You know, I didn't used to see all these seals," and they're right.
They didn't.
(contemplative music playing)
♪ ♪
Crocker Snow: I've spent a lot of time all over the world.
All kinds of places that I like.
But when I set foot on Muskeget,
the moment my foot hits the sand,
I'm in the Muskeget thing instantly.
Nothing else.
My first exposure was,
I was nine years old right after Dad got it.
And he came down on a Piper Cub,
the yellow planes with single engine,
and I had my best friend in the back.
And he landed out on that beach.
He dropped us off, got back on the plane,
said, "I'll be back" and took off.
And I distinctly remember sitting there with my friend
and watching the yellow plane disappear.
- I bet. - And everywhere we walked,
there were seagulls attacking us,
'cause we were going through a nest without knowing it.
Kimberly Murray: Uh-huh.
Snow: It was like Alfred Hitchcock's "Birds."
We found an old 2x4 or something,
and we were sort of...
see if the plane--
My memory and what I wrote was just about two hours.
And eventually we saw this little yellow plane coming in.
(contemplative music playing)
Snow: We think of ourselves as the stewards of the island,
you know, to keep it the way it is,
except for the gray seals.
(laughs) Um--
(Murray speaking)
You-You know what I mean. You know exactly what I mean.
I don't want them to overtake
all the other species on the island.
(seals barking)
You didn't see any pups born here in 1960, did you?
Snow: The first one was found, I think, in '64,
and then there were 20 or 40.
And they had-- they were by name.
The scientist said, "There's Mariel."
I-I've told you that.
- There's so few of them, they could name them. - Yes.
They named them. And it was cute.
♪ ♪
Wilkinson: You know, 15, 20 years ago,
if you saw a seal, it was sort of an event.
When I was a little kid and we spent our summers in Cape Cod,
we might see two a summer.
And you kind of go, "Wow. It's really cool.
I was down at Ballston today and there was a seal!"
(seals wailing)
Sette: People are very surprised, even locals,
when they see seals here
because they were gone for so long
because of the bounties.
(staccato music playing)
Sette: It was perceived that the seals were responsible
for eating down the commercially important fishes.
So the seals were bountied.
People were paid for noses or pelts or flippers.
Tim Reinemo: My grandfather used to hunt for them, sure.
Muskeget was a great hunting ground.
Used to be able to go out there and get 'em
and bring back the noses.
You could also cut the ear off.
Sette: Over 20,000 seals are believed to have been bountied
in, um, Massachusetts waters.
And then, in 1972, the Marine Mammal Protection Act
was put in place to protect seals.
By the time they hit about 200, I asked her, Valerie--
- Rue. - Yeah.
- Valerie Rue. - And she said they'll never get to more than a thousand.
There, there won't be enough feed, or there'll be disease.
And she was obviously dead wrong.
(intense music playing)
Snow: We have all the problems with the sharks.
It's obvious.
I mean, nobody has to think about that too much.
They're attracted by the seals and there are a lot of seals.
It's clear that the population
has reached beyond what it needs to be to be stable.
But with the Marine Mammal Protection Act,
you can't delist gray seals or any other marine mammals,
if I'm not-- if I'm correct.
That should be changed.
So if they get beyond the point
that they have to be to be self-sufficient,
it should be doable to make changes.
I mean, they haven't gotten to a point
where they're beyond the point of becoming--
of "self-sufficient," is I think what you just said.
- I did. - It's not beyond that point from a ecological point of view.
Well, what is the right point?
Well, the goal of the Marine Mammal Protection Act
is to allow them to recover to a certain range.
What is that figure? It's not in the act.
- No, it's not. - You can't, you can't reach it,
because it could go forever.
Our population is going like this,
and we're not controlling ourselves,
and you're controlling the seals.
(chuckles) I'm just giving her a hard time.
Murray: The seals are recovering, they're doing well.
Marine Mammal Protection Act has been a success.
But because we're so populated now,
the number has come in conflict
with a lot of our uses of the ocean,
and that's what we're trying to balance.
Snow: Right. But, number one, if you let nature be nature,
they wouldn't be protected.
Point two, why would the seals have it over people?
To me, that's a big argument.
Murray: It strikes at how you feel about your relationship with wildlife
- and if you feel like... - Yeah. I agree.
...you can dominate it and control it,
or if you can co-exist with it as a, as a part of it.
(contemplative music playing)
♪ ♪
Person: The Endangered Species Act is a huge success.
- It's inarguably, inarguably a huge success. - Kartsounis: Yes.
Person: We just wanna pick up a piece of that
- that's a critical omission in this legislation. - Ron Beaty: Right.
It's, it's simple. It's a delisting provision.
When a species has demonstrably recovered,
take 'em off the protection list.
- Right. - That's it.
That's what we're going for.
- Right. - Kartsounis: According to Crocker Snow,
on his island, Muskeget, there's-- what did he say,
about 12 to 15,000?
And then on Monomoy, there's 20 to 25,000.
So you put those numbers together.
When we talk to people, we need to actually stress
that the marine balance equation also means
that humans are part of the equation.
The other side, our opposition, basically is telling the media
that humans are the problem,
that we shouldn't even be part of the ecosystem.
Which is ridiculous, it's just stupid.
Group Member: Well, people said to me, "Oh, you wanna kill the seals,"
and I'm like, "No. No. I don't wanna kill the seals.
"I want a balanced ecosystem,
in which people are considered to be part of the ecosystem."
- That's it. It's not that complicated. - Yeah. And, and--
I wanna reiterate...
- Never ever. - Group Member: Yeah.
Kartsounis: Now, Ron, are you aware
that the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy
has a booth every Saturday
at Newcomb Hollow Beach in Wellfleet?
I knew they did at some beaches. I didn't know--
Kartsounis: Well, this is an actual propaganda booth...
- Beaty: Yeah. - Kartsounis: ...where it's in a parking lot.
They've got three or four interns.
And as beachgoers go by,
they're right there pushing their leaflets and propaganda.
AWSC Intern: How are you?
(Beachgoer speaking)
Intern: (chuckles) We're with the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy.
We got some shark smart tips here, so if you go in the water,
this is all of our detection data.
So that's where we know they have been detected.
How many off of Cape Cod?
Uh, there-- At any given time, we don't really know, you know?
They, they like it-- we know they like it here in the summer
and up until about October,
but the exact number that's here is kind of hard to tell, yeah.
But there is not a lot that are on this beach, right, because of the sandbars and stuff?
So you can see we're right about here.
This is like a highway for shark activity.
So there's... at any given time, a potential for--
- Yeah, they're going. Yeah. - Oh, yeah, for sure.
Beachgoer: So cool.
- I saw a shark yesterday. - Beachgoer: Yeah.
- Intern: Oh, really? That's super cool. - Yeah.
- With a fin up in the water. - Intern: Oh, yeah.
- Beachgoer: Couldn't believe it. - I don't know what kind it was.
Intern: Yeah. Probably a great white.
- They're usually inshore. Yeah. - Beachgoer: Yeah, that's--
- Whoa! - Intern: We'll be here until 12:00,
so when you guys are back from your surf--
- Are, are those teeth? - Intern: Yeah, those are real shark teeth.
This is a 3D print of how big a white shark tooth can get.
(indistinct chatter)
(waves crashing)
(dog barking)
(plane engine roaring)
(pilot speaking over radio)
(tense music playing)
I think it's bait fish 'cause there's more behind it.
- Oh, yeah. - Like there are a couple more of those blobs,
but I see what you're looking at.
Lifeguard: Really has a shape though, you know?
- Oh. - Blake: Bait fish.
Lifeguard: Did you see that?
Lifeguard 2: No. What? What are we looking at?
Blake: What did you see?
Lifeguard: A fin come out of the water.
A little triangle fin.
Blake: Not a mola?
Lifeguard: Like a shark dorsal fin.
Barely broke the surface.
- Blake: How far out? - Lifeguard: Right there!
It's that thing right there.
- Blake: I see the blob. - Lifeguard: It's the blob.
Blake: Well, do you wanna just call it to be safe?
- Lifeguard: It's right in there. - Blake: Oh, that's close.
Lifeguard: Look at that-- like it's got definition.
Blake: Where's the flag?
- Lifeguard: I'm blowing. - Blake: All right.
(blowing whistle)
(indistinct shouting)
- Lifeguard: You can see it clearly when one of the waves-- - Blake: I trust you, Mike.
It was just like a smudge and it was headed that way.
- Beachgoer: Oh, headed that way? - It was headed that way, yeah.
But just to be safe, we keep you out of the water for an hour.
Beachgoer: Thank you.
(tense music continues)
How many cellphones you suppose are pointed at us right now?
Person (on radio): There's two others about, uh,
200 feet away, if that.
We're right in the damn swimming area.
(plane flying over)
Blake: Any questions? Any...
Beachgoer: It's weird, though, It was just so close.
Blake: Oh, yeah, they get really close.
Beachgoer: Yeah. And then,
and then, we all just went swimming half an hour later.
- It's so weird. - Blake: Yeah, it is.
It's just something we live with now.
Beachgoer: I know.
(mysterious music playing)
Blake: I had a dream that there were people
swimming on the sandbar there,
and I saw a fin and I had my whistle and it didn't work,
so I couldn't get people out of the water.
And then the shark caught a wave onto the shore
and bit everybody's feet.
And then I had a mass casualty incident,
and I was the only lifeguard there,
and I didn't have a phone.
And then, um, one of the fire department guys
showed up with one roll of gauze,
and that's all we had to manage it.
It's on our minds a lot and I'm even dreaming about them,
so I guess that says something.
♪ ♪
(indistinct chatter)
Beau Gribbin: We had to harpoon it today out of Scituate Harbor.
Harpoon this fish.
And when they were getting ready to pull the fish aboard,
they had a great white shark attack it.
And you can see it took a pretty good-sized bite out of it.
You got a-- You got a moon.
Seems like a lot of this happens around the moon.
This would be in the money of the fish.
This would be the fattest point of the loin
with the highest yield in the shoulders of the fish.
And just from the bite radius of that, that's a big shark.
If you saw what we just saw,
you'd never go back in the water.
♪ ♪
(tense eerie music playing)
(birds chirping)
Stormy Mayo: So yesterday, I-I got a, a scrape on my arm,
and I jumped in the water,
and it opened up.
And I was bleeding a little bit.
And I immediately thought,
it's a sign of being, being a good marine biologist,
I thought, "Man, I wonder how far this--
"the, the smell of this blood is going?
"I bet you it's going, you know, at-at the molecular levels
"that these animals can sense it,
"it's probably already gone all the way to Wellfleet
and they're all rushing in my direction."
So I got out of the water.
You know, in shallow water in Provincetown, worried about--
(chuckles)
It's a sign that terror spreads through academia as well,
as well as through the general public.
♪ ♪
This is an interesting place,
because Cape Cod is very rich in terms of fish life,
like sharks and, increasingly, of course,
in marine mammals, particularly seals and whales.
These sharks are great animals.
Anything that's living at the apex of the food web
is a pretty special creature.
And we're still learning so much about them
that we never used to.
What has been found out with all the different tagging things,
those long-distance, distance tags,
they weren't what I learned in, in graduate school.
These are-- these animals range over huge distances.
It's exciting.
But we're in a time of huge change.
With the radical change in the number of seals
and white sharks,
there is no doubt that this system is in a state
of remarkable flux.
And it's understandable that people are concerned.
Commissioner: Next on our agenda is public comment.
Anyone who wishes to address the, uh, the board can.
Beaty: I, I know the names of two of the people
- from Well-- the Wellfleet Group. - Okay.
John Kartsounis and, uh, Drew Taylor and your group.
Uh, you-- You're still here, right?
Uh, my name's John Kartsounis, Wellfleet resident.
Uh, been, uh, occasionally on the Cape for 35 years,
and I've been a resident of Wellfleet now for seven years.
Now, uh, the reason, uh, why we're here is to...
(sighs) present the public's perception
of what's going on at our hometown.
Uh, I've been recreating in the waters off Wellfleet
since 1983.
I'm not a scientist,
but I think I know a lot about what's been happening
in our town's beaches.
Uh, we've gone from seeing zero seals,
to now we see an abundance and an overpopulation of seals.
The question here is, we have a law that's almost 50 years old
and we have special interest groups that are telling us
that it is written in stone and it cannot be changed,
but I think we have to start somewhere.
I'm not, I'm not a scientist but I am a politician.
And I have my ear to the ground and what I'm saying is that,
as we look for solutions,
exemptions from the Marine Mammal Protection Act
is a very, very heavy climb. Very heavy.
It can, it can-- it, it involves the entire country.
And not only local NGO groups
but you have national NGO groups.
So, whether or not I think it's a good idea or not
is really irrelevant.
I'm looking for something about this summer
and next summer.
My personal opinion is that that is not realistic,
at least in the short term.
- That's, you know-- - Kartsounis: Well, you know what's heavy?
What's really a heavy load to bear
is "out of business" signs, foreclosure signs,
and basically a depression.
(birds chirping)
Kartsounis: Unless our public officials start to think
in terms of public health and safety, and that people
do have a right to be at the beaches and to swim
and to recreate on Cape Cod,
as they have done for a hundred years,
uh, without having to fear being killed.
Taylor: To me, it all goes back to the health of the ecosystem.
Somewhere between the mid '80s and mid '90s,
whatever number it was then, our ecosystem was flourishing.
There were seals, you could surf-cast off the beach
and catch fish: stripers, blues, flounder, whatever.
And then since then, you know, the explosion of the seals
just kind of led us to where we're at today.
I don't blame the seals and the sharks.
- Right. - It's just no management planning
and poorly written laws.
(boat motor whirring)
(motor rumbling)
Jeff Souza: I still tuna-fish with my father.
Him and I have fished together, before I used to work for him.
So now the tables are turned, now he gets to work with me.
I mean, it is neat being able to come out here
and do the same thing with my father,
being the fourth generation.
But most fishermen know what's going on and see the changes.
(water splashes)
Crew: Up.
Jeff Souza: Things that we used to fish for here now
like codfish, or we used to have good fluke fishing here,
there's no more fluke around here.
(crate bangs)
Jeff Souza: We blame the seals.
The bait fish don't wanna come in because of them.
We see them come up with striped bass, big striped bass.
So, you know, they're probably eating the smaller fish.
Crew: All set.
(crate splashes)
Billy Souza: For years, I caught lobster
and my wife sold them out of our garage.
In the springtime,
all the fishermen would come from New York
and they come up here for a week and go fishing.
And then when they went home,
they would come by my house and load up with lobsters.
Well, then all the seals start showing up.
They can't catch a fish from the beach.
The whole springtime fisheries died, our business died.
The motels lost the whole springtime.
- The bait and tackle shops went under. - Yeah.
Everything, everything just collapsed
because-- 'cause the seals came in.
And because of the Marine Mammal Protection Act,
you can't touch 'em, you can't look at 'em,
you can't even yell at 'em as you go past 'em.
Jeff Souza: To me, it's like the ecosystem is out of line.
Don't get me wrong, I like seeing whales, seals,
stuff like that, to a degree,
but when it's too much, it's too much.
It's just been getting worse and worse.
For the rest of my life,
we will still have this problem.
(somber music playing)
♪ ♪
(bike bell jingles)
(audience applauding)
Emcee (on microphone): P-Town, if you are feeling drop-dead gorgeous,
can I get a "Yes, God"?
Audience: Yes, God!
Emcee: Now, I did just find out
that it's Shark Week up in here.
I hear y'all got some man-eaters in the house...
(laughter)
(singing) ♪ I'm trying to live my life ♪
♪ So don't be the swimmer that I ♪
♪ Am looking to bite ♪
- Oh, my God. Oh! - (theme from "Jaws" playing)
No! Oh!
(cheers and applause)
(singing) ♪ Now don't go hatin' the sharks ♪
♪ I couldn't if I tried ♪
♪ Their cartilage helps cure cancer ♪
♪ But if they bite you you die ♪
(saloon piano playing "I Do Like to Be Beside the Seaside")
(music fades)
Franchitto (singing): ♪ I've been to the desert on a horse with no name ♪
♪ It felt good to be out of the rain ♪
The other night, I was surfing there,
and a big wave, they were all small,
except for one big wave.
And so I paddled out to see if I can get another one.
I went off the-- I went off the bar.
And I think I saw a shark. I'm almost positive it was now.
The way it swam,
all I saw was the very tip of what I believe was the fin.
Maybe it was the nose. I don't know.
It was brown like a seal, but Mark told me,
Mark Johnson says, "Sharks are brown."
It's never quite been the same since the fatal attack.
Hey!
It did cause a rift in the community.
Some of these people, not all of them,
but some of these people are acting like
the ocean's their little playground,
their swimming pool.
And they have no right to have--
and, you know, sharks have no right to be in there
or something, or seals.
Nah, it doesn't work that way.
(laughs)
(indistinct chatter)
(contemplative music playing)
Franchitto: And at first, I was very afraid.
But then I got, kind of, accustomed to being out there.
I'm very careful. I don't go out too deep.
Surfers put stripes on the bottom of their boards now.
I guess it confuses the sharks' sensory apparatus.
It seems to be effective.
We've got technology out here now, buoys out there.
If untagged sharks go out there,
we don't know they're there.
But that's the way it is.
If you're in the water frequently,
chances are lots of animals have seen you
that you didn't know were there.
♪ ♪
Skomal: I see it right on the bottom.
Winton: How big is this fish?
Got some girth.
She may be a transient, though.
That's a big old Gulf of Maine shark.
- She's going to-- - It's a big old "anywhere she wants to" shark.
Skomal: Yeah. Okay.
Winton: Do we-- are we giving up on this one?
- Skomal: It's just going in circles down on the bottom. - I gave up on it.
Skomal: That looks like it's gonna work.
I-I'm not so much interested what these animals do every week.
Not even every day.
I wanna know what they're doing every minute, every second.
And this is the tool to do that.
I can look if this shark's accelerating toward a seal,
and I'll see if it is because there's a camera.
So we can start to look at its behavior in shallow water
as it relates to its natural prey, the seals,
'cause we really, you know, believe that
the better we understand that predator-prey relationship
between sharks and seals,
when, where, and how these sharks are attacking and killing seals,
the better equipped we're gonna be to advise beach managers
and the general public as to how to modify their behavior.
Captain: This one's out pretty good,
so go ahead and get, and get in position.
Skomal: What's our depth here?
Captain: Seven feet, he's up.
Skomal: Look at you doing a circle.
Maybe he'll come to me. Come on, baby!
It's definitely curious about us.
Like, "What are you guys doing?"
I wish he would go downwind.
It's, it's got a lot of speed.
- Winton: I really like this one. - Skomal: I do, too.
It's got some really interesting evasive maneuvers.
Captain: Maybe we can try the right side, I don't know.
Skomal: Come up a little bit, turn in, go down sea.
Go down.
Oh, yeah.
- Go for it! - Winton: Do it?
Skomal: We got it! Oh, mother-fa-la-la-la.
- Winton: Beautiful! - Captain: You got him, man.
(peaceful music playing)
Winton: Isn't that amazing?
And she's right back in working this area...
right off the seals.
♪ ♪
After every trip,
I wanna go through and see, like, who got a tag?
Was it-- is it a shark that we've identified in the past?
Is it a shark that's, that's new that we've never seen before?
So I always kind of scan through and look.
This is a beautiful profile shot.
So in this one, you can really appreciate she's got
kind of like a rounded tip there, no big notches,
but she's got a couple little more distinct notches.
And there's different dorsal kind of shapes.
Some of them have like a hooked edge of the dorsal.
Um, ooh, this is a good one.
When I'm first describing this process to people,
a lot of times, they think I'm crazy
when I tell them, like,
"I can watch videos and tell sharks apart."
They're like, "No, it's just a shark."
But, um, they're really remarkably different.
When they've got great coloration on their tail,
it's probably the most imaginative feature.
It's kind of like looking for shapes in the clouds.
All those little things that just kind of jog our memory,
that's where a lot of them get their nicknames.
A lot of people think they're kind of silly nicknames
or that we're trying to make these animals seem more human,
but it really is just a mental trick to help us
keep these sharks straight.
But to be able to actually have an actual view
of what the shark is doing
is really a game-changer in terms of understanding
their movement, patterns,
and to get a better feel for the species.
I never, like, stop being amazed by that fact
that we can go out and see sharks we've seen, you know,
20 times before over the past five years.
There's still so much to learn about these animals.
A lot of people kind of take it for granted
that this is the most famous shark species there is,
but for a long time,
the northwest Atlantic white shark population
was the most mysterious white shark population
on the face of the planet.
♪ ♪
Wilkinson: Part of the, the, the importance of nature
and the life of a culture is
that it intersects the life of the imagination.
It expands the territory
for what human thought can encompass.
If I stand on the,
on the shore at Longnook,
and I say, "There are sharks out there,
there are white sharks out there,"
I have expanded the range and the reach of my imagination.
I am sharing that environment with a great creature,
one of nature's creations.
They are a force that throws us
up against very mysterious aspects of life.
Life, death, power, violence.
The truly unsympathetic quality of life.
We like to think that our lives are orderly
and can be easily maintained,
but sharks are one of the places where
we don't find cooperation from the natural world,
um, in terms of our sense of ownership and use.
♪ ♪
(engine revving)
(gulls screeching)
(indistinct chatter)
Child: Oh, it's so cute!
(mother laughs)
- (water splashing) - (gulls screeching)
(engine revving)
- Yeah. - (radio static)
Person (on radio): Have you seen anything?
Doug Feeney: Nothing yet.
Not moving, though.
Person (on radio): No, no drift whatsoever.
I, uh, I haven't seen shit out here.
The only thing I got out here was some bait.
Feeney: Yeah, right on. I'll let you know.
(indistinct chatter)
Feeney: This collapse that we've had with the fish,
it's not the seals.
I think they're just a scapegoat.
They privatized fishing,
and it became a huge success to some people,
to some organizations, and they made tons of money off of it.
And then, that's the new norm.
Cod fish, haddock.
We've fished the shit out of those fish.
Now we're stuck with underutilized species.
Skate wings and dogfish.
For us to get a basic day's wage
out of that underutilized species,
we gotta catch the limit.
A limit is 6,000 pounds of dogfish,
or 5,000 pounds of skate wing.
And this is such a multibillion-dollar industry,
it's never gonna change until we wipe it all the fuck out.
Like, there's something else going on down there.
The water's warm.
I think this might be the new norm.
We're warming up pretty quick here.
Things start moving and they move to colder waters,
so everything's marching north.
(solemn music playing)
- Hey, Dre, a smooth-hound. - Dre: No way. Really?
- He's alive. - Wow! Cool!
Feeney: They only catch these down south,
but with global warming,
they're startin' to come up here.
All right, I gotta get him back in the water so he lives.
There he is. All right.
And we're gonna let him go swim. There he goes.
♪ ♪
(bike bell jingles)
David "Spider" Gibson: I've been here a long time,
and I've never seen a bonito in like that.
I've seen them come, but not that small ones.
They're a warm-water fish, you know,
they're from down south.
I've been on the pier for 25 years right here
and I've never seen anybody catch 'em like that. Never.
So that tells me something.
♪ ♪
Wilkinson: Human beings,
since the Industrial Revolution,
have grown up amidst
extraordinary technological changes,
but not among extraordinary natural changes,
and that's what's happening to our generations.
And that's a totally different thing
'cause we're not in control of them.
Wendy Puryear: There's this pretty significant shift
that is happening in species on, on a global level.
You have animals
from the lower latitudes that are coming up
because the waters are getting warm
and food sources are moving up
so the predators are following them.
And then, at the same time, the polar ice caps are melting
so there are a lot of animals from those higher latitudes
that are coming down looking for prey,
they're looking for suitable habitat.
Here we are right at that, that middle crux
of everything kind of all coming together.
Even if we want to be completely selfish
and focused on our own personal human well-being,
it's important that we understand what's happening in the ecosystem.
(birds calling)
Puryear: Since my graduate work,
I've been trying to understand how viruses evolve,
looking at influenza, primarily in wild birds.
Water fowl is where you find a lot of influenza,
naturally circulating in the wild.
We're talking about gulls, and shorebirds, and ducks.
They share habitat with marine mammals,
and particularly with seals.
(energetic music playing)
We know that you can get spillover,
a transmission that happens from one species to another.
Perhaps people have heard about so-called bird flu
and swine flu.
Even though we have not been seeing signs of virus in seals,
we wonder, did that necessarily mean there was no virus
or was it possible that virus was circulating out there
without seeing disease?
So we went out to Muskeget Island
to see whether or not we could detect virus.
(wind buffeting)
- Oh, nice. - (bag rustling)
(seal crying)
Person 1: We're gonna roll, ready?
Person 2: You wanna roll him this way?
- Puryear: Yeah. - (seal grunting)
Person 1: Watch that back end, there.
- (bag rustling) - (seal grunting)
Nice. Okay.
(seal grunting, snarling)
(indistinct chatter)
He's very feisty.
Puryear: Good boy.
- Oh. - Oh.
(seal snarling)
(Puryear grunts)
Person 1: Are you ready? Everybody's out?
- Puryear: We're good. - Person 2: Yeah, you're good. Hop off.
- Nice job. Whoo! - (seal snorting)
Good job. That was not an easy one.
Puryear: So we went out and did these health assessments.
We were thinking that there could be virus,
that's why we went out and looked,
but weren't really expecting to find a whole lot.
We were actually pretty surprised to find that
about 10% of them, we were able to detect influenza virus.
And that's actually a pretty high level,
even for wild bird reservoirs.
It's a very real concern,
because if you have a scenario
where a virus is circulating in the animals,
otherwise they seem like they're healthy and just fine,
that gives the virus the opportunity to continue to circulate in that population.
(seal snorts and grunts)
There, finally.
Ready? One, two, three.
Puryear: Nice work.
Person: Nice job.
Puryear: Even if you're just thinking about a virus
that's circulating in a gray seal,
the gray seal doesn't live in a bubble.
It's not easy for a virus to be able to move from one species to another,
but if you have an animal
like manatees coming up from Florida,
maybe they have never had exposure to influenza
ever as a species,
so if they come into contact with gray seals
that are, are shedding out influenza,
that introduces a higher likelihood
of having that cross-species interaction.
All of those different reassortments
that can happen in wild animals,
the training ground on another mammalian host,
and then the opportunity for those new variants
to come into humans
that we don't have a pre-existing immunity to,
is a sort of scenario that leaves us incredibly susceptible
to that becoming a pandemic situation.
It's easy to get caught up
in the kind of "Jaws"-esque angle to things,
and take our eye off the bigger picture
that really we should be thinking about,
which is that the health of one species
really does impact all of us.
(contemplative music playing)
♪ ♪
(indistinct chatter)
Franchitto: The, uh, black flag is up.
Uh, apparently, they sighted a shark at this beach.
So the water's clear for an hour.
- Beachgoer: For an hour? - Yeah.
- So... - Beachgoer: Okay.
I just thought-- Yeah, I just found out myself.
- Beachgoer: Oh. - Yeah.
- Beachgoer: They know how to deal with that, I guess. - Yeah. I guess.
You know, just be careful. Yeah.
- Beachgoer: Thanks for telling us. - Yep, you got it.
(car engine revving)
(light music playing)
I think I'll just have a small dish of twist,
chocolate vanilla twist.
- Server: Okay. - That's all I'll have, yeah.
Hello.
(indistinct chatter)
Franchitto: I think we'd be better off if we realize
that we're one strand in the web of life...
instead of thinking ourselves as
the dominant species that can control everything.
Humankind must learn humility in the face of nature.
If you go out in the water,
you gotta take that chance, however slim it is.
♪ ♪
Here you go.
This is-- this is the oldie but goodie right here.
I used to be, like,
four feet tall riding this thing,
getting pushed into the wave.
♪ ♪
Kartsounis: Do you think you might go out today?
I would like to just because of what the event is.
Been a big part of my childhood, so...
But I haven't surfed on Cape since the day it happened, so...
Kartsounis: It's one of those things
where you have to kind of weigh everything,
and, uh, I understand, so just let me know.
I mean, you-you don't have to paddle out.
- You don't have to do anything. - Right.
- You just sit there and watch. - Yeah.
(indistinct chatter)
Announcer (on PA): You are all welcome
to the 373rd version
of the Oldtimers Classic.
It is time for us all to ride the wild surf.
Social Security, you're up next.
Social Security, 4:00, up front.
Bring your board down.
The real Cape Cod Oldtimers here.
- Whoo-hoo! Here we go! - (cheers and applause)
Announcer: Give 'em a hero's welcome.
John, oh, my God.
Yeah, I thought this was a single thing.
I know. Sweet, guys.
Announcer: And off you go!
- (crowd cheering) - Announcer: Ride the wild surf!
Surfer 1: All right. Here we go.
- Surfer 2: Whoo! - Surfer 1: Here we go!
(peaceful music playing)
(indistinct commentary over radio)
(music continues)
- John's coming in. - He's gonna get up in a little--
- Oh! - (laughs)
He gave up...
(Announcer speaking)
Clementin, come on down! Clementin, please come over!
Grab your board. Come on. I see you hiding.
I see you hiding.
- Surfer: Katie! - Katie!
Katie!
(inaudible over crashing waves)
And Alexandra!
- (cheering) - Announcer: Okay, let's hear it
for the women surfers of Cape Cod!
(airhorn blows)
(contemplative violin music playing)
Dana, what'd you do?
I heard you had the first wave of the heat.
- Franchitto: (laughs) That's why I took it. - You did.
- Taylor: Yes. - I did? Okay.
It's the longest wave I've ever seen you ride.
Taylor: Yeah. You were rocking out there.
- I was, like, screaming for you. - Franchitto: Oh, yeah.
I heard the screaming and I'm like, "Wow." (laughs)
- Announcer: Third place, we have Dana Ducktape. Dana! - (crowd cheering)
Announcer: Second place, Alexandria K...
because I can't pronounce her last name.
There she is. Thank you.
(violin music continues over voices)
(inaudible)
(music fades)
(motor whirring)
Sette: Holy moly. Look at that.
Two of their-- one, one of their engines is the value of this.
We're heading to the outer harbor.
There's several hundred gray seals that,
they don't literally haul out,
but they sit on the bottom where it's really shallow.
All these animals, it's always just the balance between, like,
food, rest, growth, sex,
and escaping predators, so,
like, "Let's find that niche of the beach
where I can take a nap and not get eaten."
(seals wailing eerily)
(wailing continues)
Sette: Oh, wow.
There's a dead humpback.
Bryan Legare: Where?
Sette: West of the southwest corner,
right out here.
Legare: Do we go?
Um...
(exhales sharply)
(tense music playing)
Legare: I said, uh, "Scott, Bryan here.
"Uh, we heard there's a dead whale.
"Skomal is on the water.
And if he had a better location, that would help us."
It's a-- you know, it's the needle in the haystack.
Like, in your mind a dead whale is gonna be huge.
It's actually really-- they're really hard to find.
♪ ♪
(music fades)
(camera shutter clicking)
Sette: Wow.
- Look at all the petrels. - Legare: Yeah.
Sette: So, you can see all the little bits
that's kind of broke down on the whale.
That's wonderful fat for a small seabird
like a Wilson's storm petrel.
A whale floating at the surface like this, as it breaks down,
it's gonna provide lots of feeding opportunities for these birds.
And these birds will migrate south.
And they're so small, so fat stores for them.
It's really important.
So a boost like this will probably be good for this--
Look at how many there are just trailing behind us here.
It's beautiful.
Legare: You can see how quickly, you know,
this animal's being reclaimed into the ecosystem.
Sette: It's powerful, right?
Most people don't think about whales when they die.
Right now, it's gassed up, but if, if they create a cavity
and the gas is released, it'll sink.
That's when it becomes whale fall
and sinks to the bottom.
And then everything on the bottom has a meal.
There have been sharks here.
Legare: Yeah. Those definitely look like some shark bites.
Sette: That big open area on the top of the whale,
those are all, all bites.
- Legare: Tow boat's here. - Sette: Yeah, tow boat's here.
That's Noah. That's Noah Santos.
He's got a shark cage right there.
Oh, my God. He is going in that water.
- What? - Legare: Yeah.
Sette: That is amazing.
Legare: Part of the culture of Cape Cod.
Sette: Oh, Lord. (laughs)
(indistinct chatter)
♪ ♪
- Legare: That's not a whale watch though. - Sette: That's the "Ock."
Legare: Oh, that's Greg that's on that.
- Sette: Greg Skomal? - Legare: Yeah.
- Sette: Oh, cool. So he's here. - Legare: Yeah.
Sette: Oh, yeah. No worries. How's it going?
(Skomal speaking)
- Oh, yeah. (laughing) - Legare: Mm-hmm.
(Skomal speaking)
Legare: Yeah.
(Skomal speaking)
Legare: Yeah.
Sette: So, Bryan, you see the elliptical marks on the side here?
- Legare: Yeah. - Sette: There's a shark fin right there.
- I just saw a shark fin. - Legare: You just saw a shark fin?
Dorsal fin, yup. You guys look this way.
- There was just a shark tip. - Yeah, right in the back.
Sette: Yep. Oh, oh! Was that a-- Oh. Was that a white or a blue?
- Legare: Uh, that's not a white. - Sette: Okay.
(tense music playing)
- Sette: Oh! Right behind, that's a shark! - Legare: Oh, look at that.
- Sette: Yeah. - Legare: That's a white shark.
Sette: White shark!
- Legare: Big one. - Sette: Yeah.
- RV "Ock," RV "Ock." - Legare: Yeah!
- Sette: This is "Volta" on 82. - (radio static)
Legare: Holy!
Sette: Oh, why you coming to me?
- Legare: That's a-- - Sette: He is looking at us.
- Don't come on my... - Legare: Tagged.
Sette: Yeah. Get the dorsal fin, Bryan.
(music intensifying)
Legare: It's big. It's really big.
Person: Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Oh, my God.
Holy fucking shit.
Oh, my God.
(gasps)
(passengers exclaiming, gasping)
Noah Santos: Fucking shit. Get me out of this!
- (laughing) - Person: (gasping) Oh, my God.
Santos: It's like watching Jaws go by.
Person: Oh, my God, babe, you did it!
- Santos: Whoo! - Person: Whoo!
Santos: Check that off the bucket list. Holy shit!
(Legare speaking)
(Santos speaking)
(Sette and Legare laugh)
(contemplative music playing)
Mayo: The ecosystem provides balance and stability
if we'll just give it balance and stability.
Those of us who live here see little snapshots.
As this ecosystem changes,
the snapshots become more telling.
One can imagine that Native Americans,
who lived on these shores,
probably saw little difference
in, in the coming and going of fish and birds,
and, and whales,
probably for millennia.
Now in a lifetime we're seeing those differences.
My grandfather said that when my ancestors came here,
there was an abundance of fish such that
in this very location, right in the harbor,
they fished with big wicker baskets.
It was a time of balance.
And this ecosystem right now one feels, I certainly feel,
is in a state where it's trying to find the balance.
But human activities have imbalanced the system.
Finding that balance,
and finding how humans can live with that balance is not easy.
(swimmers shriek)
- Really looks pretty today. - Person: Yeah.
- Did you see the whale? - Blake: No, I didn't. Did you?
Person: I-- Yeah. Your mother, when she went down
and said there's a whale coming,
- I saw the spout. - Blake: Oh, nice.
We're going up because we're gonna pull the chair up.
Oh, you're pulling the chair up too?
- All right. - Blake: Yep. - Person: Thanks, Dana.
I don't know if there's any space.
Blake: That's all right. We'll figure it out. Thanks.
The lifeguards are taking up their chairs,
- so there's no more lifeguards. - Beachgoer: Oh.
Yeah, if there's a shark out there,
you won't know unless you happen to see the fin.
(laughter)
Person: Up, up, up, up, up!
♪ ♪
Wilkinson: When my parents bought a piece of land in Wellfleet,
there were no houses, it was all woods.
In those days, you felt you'd reached an outpost.
The land was wild and uncontaminated.
Only by a, a thumbnail is the Cape still a wild place.
You know, it's this tiny little vest pocket park.
Too many people use it.
It's just holding on,
just holding on for its ecological life.
Blake: I mean, I'm a little worried,
because, like, we're still in peak shark season
and people are still going to be coming to the beach.
I mean, some of us will be around.
So, we'll keep an eye out, like, unofficially.
We'll definitely be looking for sharks
'cause we can never turn it off,
and we can never stop lifeguarding.
Hopefully people will pay attention.
(music intensifying)
(music fading)
(contemplative music playing)
(music fades)
(contemplative music playing)