Several Cape Cod great white shark sightings lit up the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy’s Sharktivity app during a busy weekend, while many spotters are also confusing ocean sunfish for the apex predators.
A flurry of shark activity was reported close to shore on Sunday, including a shark alert off of Chatham in the middle of the afternoon.
“!! SHARK ALERT !! White shark spotted 400 yards off North Beach Island,” tweeted MA Sharks, which is run by shark researcher John Chisholm, who confirms shark sightings for the Sharktivity app.
Shark alerts are issued when a white shark sighting is confirmed close to a public beach. A notification goes out with each alert.
Chatham is a hotspot for sharks this time of year, as they prowl the shoreline for seals.
Other Outer Cape shark sightings on Sunday included a great white spotted near Chatham’s Monomoy Island, and a 10- to 12-foot great white spotted off of Nauset Outer Cut in Orleans.
In Cape Cod Bay off of Eastham, people out on the water “watched the shark swim back and forth about 250 feet from our boat off the bay shore near Steele Rd,” reads the Sharktivity post.
The shark sightings then continued on Monday, with multiple reports of great whites off of Chatham.
Also, a couple of unconfirmed shark sightings came in from the Plymouth bay area over the weekend. A beachgoer at White Horse Beach told a lifeguard that there was an injured seal at Manomet Point.
“Party reported a possible shark in the area as well,” reads the Sharktivity post. “No description or contact info; Harbormaster checking the area. Unconfirmed — yellow flag.”
Also, a beachgoer reported that they saw “something large in the water with a fin” between Plymouth Beach and Brown’s Bank. That was also an unconfirmed sighting.
Meanwhile, lots of ocean sunfish have been recently spotted in the area — and confused for the apex predators.
“Most of the shark sighting reports I’ve received in the past week have been sunfish,” Chisholm wrote.
The fin of the ocean sunfish, also known as a Mola mola, is often confused for a shark’s fin.
“Shark? Nope! This is an ocean sunfish we saw on the afternoon trip,” Hyannis Whale Watcher Cruises posted on Sunday. “Ocean sunfish are the largest bony fish in the ocean.”