CCB MEDIA PHOTO
The sign at the Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce welcomes visitors.
HYANNIS – The Cape Cod Reopening Task Force is providing updated beach information on their website advising residents and visitors to “Beach Well” on Cape Cod.
“It includes six recommendations for beach-goers to ‘Beach Well’,” said Cape and Islands State Senator and task force member Julian Cyr.
The six recommendations are as follows:
- Avoid high tide when less beach is available.
- Consider going three hours before or after high tide.
- Bayside beaches have more room at low tide.
- Limiting social gatherings to less than 10 people, remaining six feet from others and maintaining 12 feet between towel and beach blanket areas.
- Wear a mask while walking the beach or to/from the parking lot.
- Refrain from beach sports such as volleyball, soccer, and bocce.
Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce CEO and task force member Wendy Northcross said that a reason for the updated information has been a lack of clarity among beachgoers.
“We found that there was some lack of clarity, especially when you have visitors this time of year and they are not necessarily tuned into Massachusetts protocols around the beaches, but there was a lack of clarity about the 12 foot distance between beach gatherings,” said Northcross.
“And there was also some perhaps, a lack of understanding about best time to go based on the tide and so we have actually included a map showing tide charts, again not assuming everyone knows about the tides and that the tides differ on different parts of the Cape.”
Northcross added that she believes during this time of year, when the weather is hot, that high tide times at beaches are popular because people want to swim but that people need to be cautious of when they go to the beach.
The task force has been receiving reports from town managers and select boards about concerns on needs to restrict beach access due to overcrowding.
According to Northcross, visitors ranked going to the beach high in their desire list for the summer.
She said that an initial fear was that towns on the Cape would not have the same beach protocols in place which could lead to issues and confusion.
To combat this the task force released uniform beach protocols and signage upon the reopening of Cape Cod.
However as the summer has gone on, the task force is finding that people are having trouble following the protocols.
“Has the summer has wound out, and of course it has been a very hot summer, which is good for beach going but has created a little bit of concern that people did not understand,” said Northcross.
“I think the biggest issue quite honestly was the 12 foot distancing between beach blanket groups. Everyone got six feet in their head and that’s how they were organizing themselves on the beaches was six feet apart, and some of the information that we issued and we had six feet before it was really clear from the state that they wanted 12 feet so we felt it was important to reinforce that.”
The task force also believes that people visiting Cape Cod might not understand the difference between beaches, especially those on the bay-side.
However the task force added that overall people have been doing an exceptional job of wearing face coverings and avoiding other people’s beach blankets.
Northcross said that while the Cape as a whole is seeing a 10 to 20 percent tourism decrease, the region is still doing relatively well.
“We are the highest preforming county in Massachusetts for travel and tourism, so overall the numbers are down but not as significantly as we had feared,” said Northcross.
“I cannot remember a summer in decades where Cape Cod has performed better than Boston.”
All tourism information was gathered through August 1.
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