The Bristol Parks and Recreation Commission temporarily prohibited visitors to Pemaquid Beach Park from entering the water after a shark sighting Monday, July 31. The beach reopened to swimming the following morning, Tuesday, Aug. 1.
According to Bristol Parks and Recreation Director Shelley Gallagher, the shark was sighted by people on the beach with both the naked eye and with binoculars.
“There was a moment it was thought to be a sunfish,” Gallagher said. “But the fin protruding from the water was too angular.”
According to Bristol town officials, a great white shark by the name of Anne Bonney, after the famed Irish pirate, was around the area when the sightings were reported off Pemaquid Beach.
According to Ocearch, an online shark tracker, Anne Bonney, a 9-foot, 425-pound female, was last located off Southport Island at 4 p.m. on Monday, July 31.
Shark sightings are not a new phenomenon in the ocean waters off Lincoln County. On July 7, 2022, a great white shark was reported hunting a seal off Pemaquid Point by the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy Sharktivity app. The Bristol Parks and Recreation Commission closed the beach at the time as well.
The Maine Department of Marine Resources has been monitoring the presence of white sharks in southern Maine waters more closely since 2020. The department has been working in collaboration with Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, and the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy.
According to the Maine Department of Marine Resource’s shark acoustic monitoring program, July and August are the months with the highest shark activity in the Gulf of Maine.
Shark safety tips recommended by the DMR include limiting splashing, avoid the water at dawn or dusk when the light is low, avoiding murky or low visibility water, staying close to the shore, swimming, surfing, or paddling in groups, and avoiding areas where seals and or schools of fish are present.
Gallagher said people were still allowed in the park while swimming was suspended.
The shark warning flag, a purple flag with a white shark silhouette, was left out over night to warn park goers after hours of the sighting.
To report a shark sighting, go to maine.gov/dmr/science/fisheries-monitoring-assessment.
