Dramatic photos capture shark eating seal off Cape Cod

Researchers recently witnessed a great white shark devouring a seal near Cape Cod beaches, leading marine experts to predict a human attack is inevitable.

Atlantic White Shark Conservancy spotter pilot Wayne Davis captured the “dramatic predation images” of a white shark eating a gray seal off Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge in Chatham Monday, showing a bloody scene in the water.

The social media frenzy around sharks in the Cape Cod area recently included a YouTube video taken by a group of fishermen off of Nauset Beach after they spotted the ocean predator. The boat was participating in a fishing tournament on Saturday, according to MassLive. The creature reportedly swam past the 26-foot vessel several times.

Boston.com also shared photos several years ago after a tourist captured a great white shark attacking a seal close to the beach on the Cape Cod National Seashore.

Great white sharks started to return to the shores of Chatham in 2009 and have come back every summer since, according to National Geographic. Though these sharks are nothing new to Cape Cod, sightings were rare.

The sharks may be happy snacking on seals, but experts predict a human attack is imminent.

“It’s not if, it’s when, in terms of somebody being fatally attacked. We’ve got seals being eaten within 100 meters of surfers. Think about that,” marine biologist Greg Skomal told the publication. “Cape Cod is coexisting right now but we haven’t had the attack; we haven’t had that fatal attack.”