Cape Cod

Five Shark Sightings Close Beaches in Nantucket, Cape Cod

Five shark sightings closed several beaches across the Massachusetts coast on Saturday, including four on Cape Cod.

Two separate shark sightings near Nauset Public Beach on Saturday closed the beach from both 10:45 a.m. to 11:45 a.m and 2:45 p.m. to 3:45 p.m.

A Saturday morning shark sighting closed the south shore beaches at Cisco Beach on Nantucket for two hours.

The Nantucket harbormaster tweeted that alert out at 9:40 a.m. 

A white shark was spotted by a spotter pilot 50 yards off of Ballston Beach in Truro around 11:30 a.m. For the second time in as many days, a shark was spotted at Longnook Beach in Truro, closing that beach from 1:15 p.m. to 2:15 p.m.

August is officially "Seal and Shark Awareness Month" on Cape Cod this year after county officials approved the declaration Wednesday amid a busy season for shark sightings.

The Cape has already seen a record number of shark taggings this far into summer and beaches are being temporarily closed for shark sightings on an almost daily basis, including five straight days this week.

There have already been 180 shark sightings of the coast of Cape Cod this summer, according to the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy's Sharktivity app. That doesn't account for multiple sightings of the same shark, however.

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