Another documentary about the shark situation on Cape Cod will air soon. The film shows the aftermath of the first fatal shark bite in 82 years and how locals are struggling with the new normal.
The documentary Great White Summer examines the growing divide over what to do along the Cape Town coast as increasing numbers of great white sharks hunt seals near the coast each summer and autumn.
The filmmakers began filming a few months after 26-year-old Arthur Medici died when a great white shark bit him at Newcomb Hollow Beach in Wellfleet.
“We captured the real emotions after the attack,” Nick Budabin, the film’s director and producer, told the Herald. “It’s a deep look into the way the community deals with this kind of trauma.”
Ultimately, Budabin hopes that viewers will take away that the situation facing sharks locally is a complex problem and that dialogue within the community is important.
Shark researchers estimate that every summer and fall, hundreds of great white sharks now migrate north to the Cape, where they hunt seals near the coast.
In addition to the fatal shark bite, other beachgoers have been bitten and many near misses have been reported over the past decade, causing great fear in the community.
“This is no longer a swimming or surfing destination,” says local resident AJ Salerno during the documentary. “We were here last week. It was 27 degrees, as hot as it could be. Everyone wanted to jump in. No one did.”
“…Someone is going to get hurt,” he added. “It’s not like it’s going to happen to everyone, but if everyone’s in the water, someone is going to go under. We knew that last year. It happened last year.”
Shark bites on humans are extremely rare and the likelihood of a fatal shark attack is even lower.
“But it only takes one (shark attack) to change the human psyche,” shark researcher Greg Skomal says in the film. “Nobody likes the idea of being bitten and killed by a wild animal… I know I can’t change the behavior of sharks and seals, but I can change my behavior. And unfortunately, that’s what we have to do.”
Heather Doyle from the Cape Cod Ocean Community is one of the main characters in the film. She wants to find technical solutions to prevent shark attacks.
“To do nothing would ultimately be to leave the beaches to the sharks,” Doyle says in the film. “And we should not allow that to happen without putting up a good, vigorous fight.”
Great White Summer had its world premiere in April at the International Ocean Film Festival and will be released on streaming platforms by Gravitas Ventures on September 3. The 79-minute film can be pre-ordered on iTunes.
In advance of the film’s release, the documentary will have its Cape Cod premiere on August 19 at the Cape Cinema in Dennis. Following the screening, there will be a Q&A with Budabin for the audience.
