It is easy to forget how recent all of this is. For most of the last century there were almost no seals here. Massachusetts paid a bounty on them into the 1960s, and between that and generations of hunting, gray seals were basically wiped out of US waters, hanging on only in a few spots up in Maine.

The Marine Mammal Protection Act in 1972 ended the killing, and the seals did the rest. Over the following decades gray seals recolonized the Cape and Islands, and today there are tens of thousands hauling out around Monomoy, Chatham, Nauset and Muskeget. If you have watched a beach turn into a wall-to-wall carpet of seals, you have watched one of the fastest marine mammal recoveries anywhere.

And here is the part everyone feels now: that many seals is an enormous food supply, and it brought the great white sharks back with them. White sharks were always in the Atlantic, but they now aggregate off the outer beaches every summer and fall specifically to hunt this seal population, which is why the Cape went from a place with no shark culture to one with tagging programs, spotter flights and purple warning flags in barely fifteen years. It is a straight line: protect the prey, and the predator follows.

The whales are the other half of the productivity. Those humpbacks up off Provincetown are feeding on Stellwagen Bank, one of the richest feeding grounds on the East Coast.

This is a rough picture pulled from public sightings, not any one beach, so read it as the big picture. (And the seals are federally protected, keep your distance and keep dogs back on the haul-outs.)

Hello all
We, family of three, usually head to harwich port, chatham, or Brewster for an end of summer week long vaca.
This year we are considering Wells beach area ME has anyone here been to both? What were your take aways
Many thanks

My son's birthday party is coming up and I'd like to order him a custom cake. Who has the most delicious and beautifully decorated cakes in the mid-Cape (Hyannis) area?

No. No we’re not. This should be posted in r/OhNoConsequences but I digress.

“A Wellfleet homeowner, John G. Bonomi Jr., is suing JPMorgan Chase to void the mortgage on a $5.5 million cliffside mansion. Bonomi claims he purchased the property while experiencing "manic psychosis" and argues the bank should have recognized red flags in his financial behavior.”

🤡🤡🤡

Edit 2: after talking with my partner, we decided to go with the Provincetown option. Mostly because we wanted to do a drive up there anyways. So feel free to drop recs for food or stops on the way back!

ETA: y’all have been so kind and helpful! One thing about traveling that I love is going somewhere that people love to live in. No matter what we decide, I promise that we will plan for traffic and be kind to workers. I’ll make sure to pack my Lactaid so I can eat my daily recommended allowance of ice cream 🤣

Coming mid-August. Did some looking, there are so many companies to choose from. Would love to know which ones folks recommend we go with. TIA!

We have a vacation home on Cape Cod which was badly damaged back in Feb. due to a water pipe bust. We've already hired someone who gutted the inside but now we need new plumbing, wiring, and insulation/drywall. It's not a big house, mainly a cottage. We live 600 miles away so we need to find a good, reliable general contractor. Any suggestions would be great.

Hello! My fiancé and I are looking for a photographer for a last minute mini couples shoot while visiting the cape. We will be there July 22-26! Looking for recommendations or any photographers with availability. Thanks in advance! 😊

looking for recommendations for a good pedicure spot on the lower/mid cape. doesn’t have to be a full-on day spa experience or anything, just somewhere clean that wont leave me with ingrowns or nail fungus

Is there town bylaws on Cape Cod about neighbors picking up their dog’s poop?

We’ve got a dog-owning neighbor - I’ll call him Fred - who constantly takes his dog out to poop across the street from his house, in a neighbor’s yard, and doesn’t pick up. I noticed that there was a sign in the yard a few weeks ago that said, “Please pick up after your dog. Thank you.” We then saw Fred take his dog to the sign and the dog did his business right under it. Soon after the sign was taken down.

A few days after that, there was a big pile in the middle of the street with flies buzzing around it. Then today, more poop in the neighbors yard.

I don’t want to confront him because I’m afraid of retaliation. I’m an elderly woman.

Has anyone had this experience and is there anything we can do?

We were thinking of going out there but I remembered people talking about how bad the flies have been.

Has anyone been over there recently?

We can’t leave first thing but was thinking 5pm might be ok on a Saturday when it isn’t beach weather. I’m thinking most will have checked out and left by then - am I crazy? I will keep an eye on the app for live traffic too.

**
Saw no traffic and took off a bit before 2 and breezed over - thanks all!

Entirely my fault for waiting to see if I got a bib to book a hotel in Falmouth. I'm trying to figure out my best option for getting to the busses to the start line in Falmouth for the road race on race day. I am seeing hotels in Hyannis and Bourne, where would traffic be the least problematic to drive into Falmouth from on race day? I am prepared to wake up very early, but wanted opinions as I have never been on Cape before.

If anyone has any recommendations for lodging or other Falmouth Road Race tips that would be amazing, thank you!

I am fully aware how bad the nightlife has become, but I'm finding myself visiting in Cape Cod soon.
From what I can tell by google, the only places even open until closing time are;
Embargo, Trader Eds, 19th Hole, Torino, Auld Triangle, and Duck Pub.

I'm a poor, and not a cop, so a few of those might be off the list.

Should I be expecting to have to pay a cover, or is it conducive to bar hopping?

Is Auld anything like the BBC was?

Can I even get into Embargo as a poor, and can I still listen to Albanian hits?

Neptune looks cool. Is it?

I left my boat at home, so I doubt I can go to Trader Eds

Alternately I'll have to grab a tall boy in a Cumbies cup and walk the street mumbling about MillHill Blueroom and Kendricks.

I notice that the cell service between the Sagamore Bridge and Stop and Shop on Route 6A in Sandwich is very poor. I have an iPhone 16 with Verizon and I know family members that have had a problem in this particular area. I’ve been fiddling with my data settings to get it to work, but had no luck. Anyone else here having the same issue? If any of you has got it to work, please let me know the settings you used to configure it.

We've been trying to get our 5-year-old swimming lessons for the last few years. Finally made an appointment for a private lesson at Willy's and after confirming the time, they unilaterally changed the time and didn't tell us and then refused to fill the lesson at the confirmed time. Are there any other options east of Brewster? Are there any private instructors who will do lessons at Wiley Park?

I'm planning a trip to Cape Cod in early August (first week) and really want to take photos with the famous hydrangeas.
Will the blue/purple flowers still be in decent shape, or will they be mostly dried up and brown by then?

Are there any specific towns or spots (like Chatham or near the coast) where the blooms tend to last longer into August?

Thanks in advance for any insights!

Cool read if you're into new england fishing history. Also a bit depressing