Not likely, at least I would hope. All seals and sea lions are protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act and some are also listed under the Endangered Species Act.
There seem to be a plethora of half chowed down seal bodies coming on shore here. There has to be more than one great White. The Porbeagle population is up too. They aren’t quite as nasty though you would not want to interact with one.
The GW seems to have friends or is still lurking https://www.pressherald.com/2020/07/31/state-eases-some-swimming-restrictions-following-fatal-shark-attack/
The group that I kayak with had a paddle planned for the Harpswell area today, near the center of the shark sightings. We decided to move the paddle about 20 miles east to Pemaquid. I think the probability of a kayak-shark encounter is pretty low, but this will still make people feel a little safer - unless Mr./Ms. shark heads east too.
I bothered to look this up a few or so years ago. Great Whites are regularly around pretty much all the way up the coast. The fact that the Gulf of Maine is the fastest warming section of water on the east coast, at least last I checked, could be changing the location of all parts of the fish food chain.
Doubt the lobstering folks are shedding any tears…
It was sad news. She was a friend of one of our hiking and kayaking friends. I grew up on Bailey Island back in the 60s and early 70s. My mother lived there for another 40 years and swam a lot near Cedar Beach and other spots and kayaked all over the area. We never dreamed of a shark attack. I’m not sure there were near as many seals back then. We paddle in the area quite a bit now and noticed a lot more fish jumping this summer. A few seals popped up here and there. We saw even more activity near Boothbay when we kayaked out of Knickercane Launch recently. You could see the seals where chasing the fish. We see lots of people out in these small “bathtub” style kayaks. I’m not sure I’d want to be on the ocean with one of those right now (actually never). We just spent 5 days up at Stonington and saw seals and a few porpoises as well. Amazing how warm the water is even up there. We spent 2 nights at Old Quarry Campground before it closed. We then spend 3 nights at Greenlaw’s Campground and launched downtown. There’s plenty of parking up by the school. We are so lucky to be able to enjoy a beautiful coastline up here in Maine during this stressful time. We saw lots of mask wearing in Stonington. We always make sure to have ours with us and are ready to use them even when kayaking. You never know when you might need to help someone or need help yourself. Better safe than sorry.
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We went out of Mackerel Cove on Wednesday to circumnavigate Bailey Island. We had only gone a short ways around the point on the west side when my friend and I spotted a fin coming our way. She yelled shark as it got closer and when I looked down, it was passing between our 2 kayaks. It was probably around 12’ long. It was hard to see it as the sun was shining on the water and reflecting off it’s back just a bit under the surface. We were about 50’ feet from the shoreline. It was close enough we could have hit it with our paddles. Actually, my friend thought she felt a bump. Pretty scary. It took us a while to calm down and make a decision on whether or not to continue our paddle. We did call the local kayak outfitter on Orr’s Island to let them know and my husband made a call on Channel 16 to let others know. Obviously sharks are still in the waters in Maine. We decided we would not be practicing any self rescue on this outing.
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Yeow. That is very scary! Glad it did not escalate.
I saw a shark expert on tv who advised against wearing a black wet suit. More likely to be mistaken for a seal. The surfers I see out here on Long Island (New York) all wear black suits.
Some time ago my sister was checking into lighter weight suits intended to protect against stings by red jellyfish, a common issue in places like Australia apparently and a massive problem if you are highly allergic. She is. A significant number of those suits she say were not solid black.
That said, before deciding to get other than black does anyone know what colors a shark sees? If they don’t see red for example, a red patterned wet suit is not going to help.
I remember a discussion about black/white patterns that simulate the coloration of orcas, the only known predator of white sharks. I don’t know if it was definitively shown to be a deterrent. With the sun overhead, all a shark looking up from below is going to see is a silhouette, so I suspect that color doesn’t make much difference in that situation.