Cape pol drops suggestion to destroy sharks

A Cape official who floated a controversial plan to catch and kill great white sharks off Bay State beaches is tabling the proposal, which was blasted by local marine conservationists and environmental activists.

“Pending issuance of alternative proposals by other concerned parties and organizations, an indefinite interim freeze is now being placed by me upon my recently released Cape Cod shark hazard mitigation strategy proposal,” Barnstable County Commissioner Ronald Beaty said in a statement yesterday.

“It is sincerely hoped that public safety and awareness on Cape Cod beaches will be dramatically enhanced by any such upcoming alternative shark mitigation proposals because the current practices are woefully lacking and unnecessarily put human lives at risk.”

Beaty announced the idea Tuesday after a video was posted online showing frightened swimmers running for shore Monday as a large shark shredded a seal off Nauset Beach in Orleans. His proposal was picked up by news outlets from coast to coast after a 69-year-old Chatham man escaped serious injury when a great white took a bite out of his paddleboard in the waters off Marconi Beach in Wellfleet.

The last attack on a person in Massachusetts was in 2012 on a swimmer off Truro, and the last fatal attack in the Bay State was in 1936 off Mattapoisett.

The Atlantic White Shark Conservancy, a local nonprofit that tags and tracks white sharks off the Cape, said Beaty’s idea was “ill-considered, indiscriminate and will not influence beach safety.”