On a cloudless afternoon in July, Nicole Sweeney was on a charter boat off the southeastern corner of Cape Cod, cruising through blue-green water as smooth as sea glass. Conditions were perfect for a dunk in the ocean, but swimming was resoundingly off the table.
That’s because if all went to plan, Ms. Sweeney would soon come face to face — or at least face to fin — with a great white shark.
“When I was a kid, sharks were not something we ever thought much about,” said Ms. Sweeney, 55, who has visited Cape Cod every summer since she was born. “Now you can’t go anywhere on the Cape without finding a coaster or a keychain or a mug with a shark fin on it.”
The onslaught of great white merch is more than mere leftovers from last summer’s 50th anniversary of “Jaws.”
Over the last several years, a resurgent seal population has turned Cape Cod into one of the world’s top seasonal hot spots for great white sharks. In summer and autumn, the stretch of ocean from the northern tip of the Outer Cape down past Chatham, on the Cape’s elbow, is now the best place on Earth to see great whites swimming — and hunting — close to shore.
