HYANNIS – The Atlantic White Shark Conservancy’s Sharktivity app has been alerting users when a tagged shark is near any Cape Cod beaches since 2016 and has steadily grown in popularity.
Atlantic White Shark Conservancy CEO Cynthia Wigren said that the app is even popular with people on the west coast interested in the marine animals.
“It was developed to raise awareness about the presence of these animals off of our coast. I think we have really fulfilled that mission because it is something that people really move towards to get information and understand,” said Wigren.
The app is now four years old, having been started in 2016 in collaboration with towns across the Cape, the National Seashore, Marine Fisheries, and towns across the south shore.
Since its launch, the app has been downloaded over 500,000 times.
“We obviously can’t provide every location of sharks. Not every shark is tagged. Not every shark is sighted. But, any information that we have or the towns have, that goes onto the app so that we’re sharing that information right away with the public,” said Wigren.
The Sharktivity app is available for free on both iOS and Android mobile devices and allows users to track individually named and tagged sharks, such as Miss Carolina and Snowflake, as they travel around the coast, as well as track shark sightings by beach-goers.
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