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Shark alert! Warnings high- and low-tech seek to protect

Posted at 9:45 AM, May 30, 2016
and last updated 2016-05-30 09:45:16-04

CHATHAM, Mass. (AP) — Officials and researchers from Cape Cod to the Carolinas are looking at responses ranging from the high-tech to the decidedly low-tech as they deal with a growing great white shark population.

On Cape Cod, Massachusetts, new warning flags emblazoned with the silhouette of a great white are flying on lifeguard stands. Towns are also posting attention-grabbing billboards at beaches that advise visitors against swimming near the seals, which are the sharks favored delicacy.

In North Carolina, university researchers are testing shark-seeking drones in a scientific study that may one day give beach lifeguards a new eye-in-the-sky.

And a smartphone app is being launched by the Atlantic Great White Conservancy this July to let beachgoers across the Eastern Seaboard monitor the movements of tagged great whites and post their own possible shark sightings.