(AP) — There’s no ominous music, no telltale fin breaking the surface as the powerful silhouette of a great white shark glides alongside the small tour boat off Cape Cod in Massachusetts. The Atlantic White Shark Conservancy, a prominent nonprofit shark research organization, is among those that have jumped into the shark ecotourism game. Cape Cod hosts about 4 million visitors a year, who bring in more than $1 billion in tourism spending and support thousands of jobs. “It feels like we’re on the trajectory of it being a point of pride for Cape Cod,” said Patrick Clarke, owner of the jewelry company Cape Clasp, of the region’s white sharks. In Chatham, a hub of the local shark tourism industry, a company that started selling popular stickers of Cape Cod in the shape of a great white shark some seven years ago has taken off as the local shark population has also come into its own.

Source: thestar September 06, 2021 04:52 UTC