After multiple sightings of great white sharks off the east side of Bailey Island, town officials have raised purple warning flags on Cedar Beach.
Harbormaster Paul Plummer said the decision was made to raise the flag on Wednesday, July 16, after two local fishermen posted on social media that they saw sharks between Pond Island and Ragged Island.
Bailey Island lobsterman Donnie Freeman posted on Facebook on Tuesday, July 15, that he had seen an approximately 12-foot-long white shark at 9 a.m. on the east side of Bailey Island.
A week prior, National Geographic photographer Brian Skerry captured an underwater image of a 10-foot great white shark underwater 15 miles off the coast of Harpswell, according to WMTW.
Pond Island is about a mile off the coast of Cedar Beach, while Ragged Island is about 4 miles away. Plummer said the flags were raised out of an abundance of caution so the public can make informed decisions.
“We are just trying to be as transparent as possible,” Plummer said. “We just thought it was the appropriate thing to do and the responsible thing to do to — at least just bring awareness to it.”
As temperatures crept into the 80s on Wednesday, people splashed in shallow water at Cedar Beach and seemed unfazed by the nearby flag.
“I think (people) are curious, but everyone’s in the water, and they kind of really don’t care,” said Peter Kalil, a beach monitor for the town. “It’s just so hot right now, and everybody’s just enjoying the water.”
Peter Ferreira, a visitor from Sturbridge, Massachusetts, said he felt comfortable swimming in shallow waters given the locations of the sightings.
“It is their natural environment,” Ferreira said. “But (with) the rarity of seeing them, it doesn’t faze me too much.”
Peter Ferreira’s daughter, Brenda Ferreira, studies marine biology. She said that because seals are most active around dawn and dusk, so are sharks. She said warming waters are bringing both seals and their predators north, where they might not have been in years past.
“The sharks have been here longer than we have,” Brenda Ferreira said. “It’s their home, and we are here visiting it.”
She said she felt comfortable going in the water where it was clear and shallow, but it is important to exercise caution after nearby sightings.
Neither Plummer nor Kalil could recall any sightings that caused the Cedar Beach flag to be raised last summer.
Five years ago, a 63-year-old woman was killed by a great white shark while swimming in Mackerel Cove, on the south side of Bailey Island. It was the first fatal shark attack recorded in Maine, and it prompted the town to introduce the flag system and a hotline.
Plummer said that if there are no more sightings in the next 24 hours, the flag will be lowered. On Facebook, he asked the public to report sightings, with a photo if possible, to the Cumberland County Regional Communications Center at 207-893-2810.
