A shark was seen swimming close to the Shore in Cape May Point
This sighting follows two rarer, but farther out, sightings of Basking sharks.
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Amid chatter about the rare sighting of two Basking sharks about five miles off the coast of Cape May County, a different kind of shark was up close and personal to bathers Monday in Cape May Point.
“It was in knee-deep water,” said Ben Swan, chief of the Cape May Point beach patrol, “within five yards of the shore.”
Lifeguards cleared the water for about an hour, Swan said, and the shark swam back out to deeper waters. Bathers returned to the ocean, and nobody was too bothered about it, he said.
“Look at that, it’s a shark, man,” one man can be heard on widely circulated video that shows two fins protruding from the shallow ocean swimming around. “So they called everyone in.”
Swan said these types of sharks are common, though not typically that close to the shore.
“We get these types of sharks,” he said. “It looks like a brown shark or a sand bar shark. The sharks that we have, they swim around all the time. We swim out there as lifeguards. We know these sharks are swimming below us.”
He said that type of shark doesn’t endanger bathers, preferring to feed on small fish and crustaceans.
“It was very, very close,” said Melissa Hasse, the beach patrol administrator. She speculated that the shark was going after a school of fish in shallow waters.
The shark sighting triggered awe among some folks, and rolled eyes among others at the reactions. “Imagine being shocked at ocean life existing,” commented one person on Facebook.
Another answered back: “Give your sarcasm a break! All my years in Cape May, I have not gone to the beach to find a shark swimming that close along the shoreline where people swim. You have to admit it is worth mentioning and enjoying the opportunity to witness. We can be such a smug bunch!”
Monday’s shallow-water shark followed news of a less common shark, the Basking shark, being spotted twice by the Cape May Whale Watch and Research Center, about five miles off the coast.
“This individual was estimated to be 15-20ft in length cruising along at the surface about 5 miles offshore,” the group wrote in a Facebook post attributed to “Naturalist Melissa.” “They are the second largest shark species alive today! We know this is a different individual from the one we had last week because the notches do not match on this dorsal fin.”