A new brochure warning about the dangers of sharks at Cape Cod has some residents worrying about local business.
The pamphlets were created as part of a state program to educate the public about the potentially-dangerous sharks. A total of 415,000 copies of the material was printed and distributed by an alliance of harbormasters and local officials. The front of the pamphlet features a shark, with its mouth open, ready to pounce, like a scene from the movie Jaws.
The Cape Cod Great White Shark Safety brochures stated the only way to stay safe from sharks is to stay out of the water.
Wendy Northcross of the Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce, expressed concerns about the design and wording of the brochure with the Cape Cod Times.
"The reality is, we have sharks, and there has to be some public information campaign. On the flip side, there's concern that sharks will be sensationalized or people will want to go on shark hunts," Northcross said.
In addition to the brochures, local officials spent $15,000 on signs, installed along beaches in the Outer Cape, warning people of sharks and riptides, among other dangers.
The town of Harwich is waiting until a shark is spotted in local waters before installing the signs.
"My concern was, in Harwich, if we don't have sightings or sharks, why are we putting these signs up to scare people off our beaches?" Peter Hughes, selectman of the town, explained to reporters. "We will deploy them if and when we need to deploy them. We're going to wait and see if we need it."
Rising seal populations are attracting sharks to the waters off of Cape Cod. Two summers ago, a man was attacked by one of the aquatic predators.
"We're just trying to raise public awareness," Nathan Sears, natural resources manager for the town of Orleans, answered in response to criticism of the pamphlet.
Of roughly 500 species of sharks, only a dozen or so ever attack humans. Most of those incidents are carried out by white, tiger and bull sharks. Those three species attack humans as often as the other nine species combined.
"Over the past five years (2006-2010), an average of 4.2 fatal shark attacks have taken place each year world-wide. Between 2006 and 2010, a total of 179 shark attacks occurred in the U.S., resulting in three fatalities," Oceana, a marine conservancy group, stated on their website.
In locations where natural hazards like sharks can be a danger to visitors, it can be a challenge for municipalities to balance safety with tourism.
