August 23, 2010 -  Shark expert Greg Skomal has confirmed that photos by tourist Terese Carena of a shark attacking a seal near Provincetown's Race Point Beach last Saturday show a great white. Carena was 15-20' from shore when the attack happened. Here's more at BostonHerald.com.

August 13, 2010 - Sailors in Chatham Harbor spotted a 14-foot great white shark Thursday morning.  The shark sighting prompted officials to close all the beaches inside Chatham Harbor from the Chatham/Orleans boundary east of Ministers Point and Strong Island, south to Lighthouse Beach. The restriction is in effect through this afternoon. Here's more at WBZ.

File image from Division of Marine Fisheries.

August 6th - Update - Doreen Leggett of the Cape Codder reports that "a 10-foot shark was seen early Tuesday morning at the mouth of Chatham Harbor and three sharks were seen Monday about half way down South Beach."  She goes on to write that the shark observation team led by Massachsuetts State Biologist Greg Skomal found a dead 400-pound seal on the South tip of Monomoy Island last Saturday.  Here's the full story.

As detailed below, last Monday I saw nothing more than a small colony of seals when I took my boat around the southern end of Monomoy up along South Beach and through the entrance of Chatham Harbor at the lighthouse.  This was likely a combination of two factors: 1) sharks do not show themselves as regularly as Old Faithful and 2) no one has ever commended me on my powers of observation ("Honey, where are my keys... glasses... wallet...?). With that in mind I should add that last Monday was my sixth trip this summer through the area.  I've seen plenty of seals on all of the trips except for the most recent one where I saw relatively few... and never a shark.

 =======================================================================================

August 5 2010 - Last Monday Mike Marks motored/sailed up Chatham's Atlantic facing beaches from Monomoy Point to Chatham Light hunting for a glimpse of a great white shark - Carcharodon carcharias. One small seal colony was seen from a distance and no sharks were seen at all. Mike did, however, succeed in making observations of male and female members of the species Homo sapiens also looking for the large creatures with Pythagorean dorsal fins and acutely pointed choppers.