CHATHAM — If reduced fish hauls weren’t enough to make people pay attention to the seal population boom, the accompanying surge in the shark population in Cape waters has been quite good at generating publicity.
The summer of 2012 was the summer of the shark on Cape Cod....
Some think the only solution is a cull. But the scientists who spoke Saturday, including Betty Lentell, a biologist contracted by the Cape Cod Commercial Fisherman’s Association, said an enormous amount of data would need to be gathered before it could even be determined if that would be beneficial.
One person who wants to see nothing happen to the seals is Keith Lincoln, owner of Monomoy Island Ferry, who has been taking tourists out to see the seals since 1989. He is now one of four seal cruise operators in Chatham, and he estimated that they recently have been taking a total of about 20,000 people a year out to see the pinnipeds.
His prediction was that nature would find some way to thin the population, but until then seals — and sharks — were great for business.
“As soon as that first shark of the season makes the media, we can’t keep up with the phone calls,” he said. “I only wish it would happen a month earlier.”
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Also see: Sealing the Deal With the Boston Globe
