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Pricey great white shark tours take off in Cape Cod
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White shark tourism is taking off in Cape Cod, where the ocean's largest predator fish have made a remarkable comeback.
Kris Roszack owns Down Cape Charters in Harwich, near the elbow of Cape Cod. He says white sharks have become more predictable here than the weather.
Roszack is concerned about the low clouds this morning. It's illegal here to lure sharks to a boat. So these tours rely on spotter planes to find them.
"I mean, success rate is probably in the upper 90% if the conditions are right,” Roszack said.
“We do not want to just take people for expensive boat rides.
”A few decades ago, white shark numbers reached an all-time low in Cape Cod. Experts blame mainly the decimation of seals, their main food source. Fishermen considered seals pests, and the state paid bounties for culling seals. But since the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972, seals have come back, at first slowly, then exponentially. Now they're everywhere, Captain Nick Franco says. Franco leads shark tours in the area.
We take a ride with one tour boat to see what happens.
Photos edited by Grace Widyatmadja.