In the parking lot at Pine Point Beach in Scarborough, Kirsten Read tucks her hair into a swim cap, straps a buoy to her hip and starts walking to shore.
Dozens of people are sitting on the beach but very few are in the water today. At the time, Hurricane Erin lingered several hundred miles offshore, which prompted beach advisories across the state.
As a professional open water swimmer, Read is familiar with these conditions.
"They were calling for 4- to 6-foot waves on the surf line," she says. "I mean, it's rough, but it looks totally swimmable to me."
Read has been swimming competitively since she was 8 years old and participated in events all over the world. Now, she lives in Arundel and has her own coaching business.
For Read and her students, swimming in rough waters is enjoyable. But it means accepting things they can't control, like sharks.
Student swimmer Julie Mahony is fine with that.
"I'll tell my nonswimmer friends that I'll swim in the ocean after work, and they'll be like, 'Well, aren't you afraid of sharks?' And I'll be like, 'Nope. Not even a little,'" she says.
According to data from the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy, more than a dozen great white sharks have been spotted off the coast of Maine so far this month.
The conservancy has documented hundreds of sightings over more than a decade. Its data suggest that the great white shark population is increasing throughout New England.
Starting with the 1972 Marine Mammal Protection Act, the U.S. and Canada have ramped up conservation efforts for the grey seal — white sharks' natural prey.
John Chisholm, an adjunct scientist with the New England Aquarium, says just because there are more sharks, doesn't necessarily mean it's more dangerous to swim.
He says the technology used to track shark movements has evolved even more rapidly than the population. Thanks to tagging technology and social media, there are more ways than ever before to report sightings.
"It would take me days, weeks, sometimes months, to just get one sighting. But now with cellphones, I'm getting dozens of sightings a day," he says. "Not all of them are sharks, but everybody is aware, and people are actually looking for them."
The "Sharktivity" app allows anyone to report a sighting on a New England Beach. Chisholm's job is to verify the sightings, sometimes dozens a day.
He says "more than 90%" of photos of suspected "shark fins" he receives are actually the harmless ocean sunfish.
Read and her students swim about 1.5 miles at Pine Point Beach, taking them about 45 minutes. She has a checklist of ways to assess the risk of sharks.
"I might look out and if I saw a lot of birds feeding on top of the water, I might think, 'Oh, [there are] bait fish,'" she says. "If you see a seal, does it mean there's a shark? No, but do you want to hang out where there are a bunch of seals? No."
Read doesn't wear a wetsuit, which some swimmers say can confuse a shark into thinking a human is a seal.
But she does wear "Sharkbanz." They look like watches that she straps around her ankle. The band contains a magnet that emits a pulse that is supposed to deter sharks.
"I'm sure some people think that the technology is poppycock," Read says. "Especially for a great white that might be trying to ambush you from the deep. But for me, it's just one more [way] of telling a shark that I'm not on the menu."
Read has never had to deal with sharks at Pine Point Beach but she did stop taking her students to Kettle Cove for swims to Richmond Island because of recent sightings.
She says many swimmers avoid Harpswell ever since a fatal shark attack in 2020 that killed a 63-year-old woman.
But open water swimmers say they won't let fear overtake their love for swimming in the ocean.
"Some people are afraid of seaweed, some people are afraid of seeing the bottom or not seeing the bottom, and some people are afraid of sharks, and that's what's top of mind for them," Read says. "When I'm trying to help people get over those fears, I try to get them to think about something else, because the mind can only focus on so many things."
The chances of being attacked by a shark are still incredibly small.
Chisholm says there's a higher chance of getting into a car accident on the way to the beach than encountering a shark in the water.
But at the same time, he says it's always good to be "shark aware."
