July 2, 2022

Sharks and Technology: It has been nearly four years and our beaches are still unconnected and unprotected!

When Arthur Medici was tragically killed in 2018 at Newcomb Hollow Beach by a shark, OpenCape immediately went to work on a plan to connect the 12 most visited beaches on the Cape to fiber internet so new technologies could be used to keep residents and visitors safe. Four years later nothing has been done. With billions of dollars available for infrastructure, the Commonwealth couldn't find $1.5M to connect these beaches to help protect the 4.1 million visitors the National Seashore saw according to a 2020 report. Why? Because the Commonwealth doesn't have a central broadband office to strategize and deploy resources to solve problems throughout the state!


OpenCape sent engineers to the 12 most visited beaches and wrote a detailed report to demonstrate what would be required to connect beaches to help usher in an era of enhanced technology to help keep visitors, lifeguards and public safety officers informed and ensure that Marine wildlife was not being harmed needlessly. Once connectivity was established on the beaches, Towns, the Commonwealth and the National Seashore could have deployed numerous technologies to help measure, watch and test ways to best protect the public.

As summer begins here in 2022, we should not just be talking about this to kick off the 4th of July weekend. This is something that should have been funded, already built and actively deployed by now.

Download our plan here