Shark Threat Closes Cape Cod Beaches

A Labor Day disappointment on Cape Cod: Beaches have shut down along much of the coast thanks to shark trouble. Officials have banned swimming at several top sites after a pair of sightings, CBS News reports. The animals seem to be appearing more frequently lately; earlier this summer, a man was reportedly bitten by a great white off Truro for the first time in 75 years.

"White sharks have probably been drawn into the area by a really large increase in the number of grey seals that are in the area," says an expert. And the sightings aren't limited to the Cape: A 1,500-pound shark turned up dead this weekend on the Massachusetts side of the Massachusetts-Rhode Island border. A biologist performed a necropsy, but officials aren't sure what killed the creature. They're going to leave it on the rocky shore, hoping the tide might eventually carry it out to sea: "There's really no means to move an animal of that size," a spokeswoman tells the AP. (More Cape Cod stories.)