By Kellen Browning Boston Globe Correspondent
June 28, 2019, 8:04 p.m.11
WELLFLEET — Christiane Boezio stood overlooking the Atlantic Ocean at Newcomb Hollow Beach on a sunny afternoon, keeping a watchful eye on her two young children.
Anthony, 6, and Oliver, 4, were entertaining themselves with plastic boats in a shallow tide pool cut off from the ocean by a sandbar, and Mom wanted to keep it that way.
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“We used to go all the way out in the water and not have any concerns about swimming,” said Boezio, of Somerville.
Last year, though, a fatal shark attack at Newcomb Hollow, a favorite spot for Cape Cod locals and a haven for tourists from New York to the Carolinas, changed everything.
The death of 26-year-old Arthur Medici prompted local officials and legislators to take several steps to keep people safer on the Cape’s beaches, including new warning systems, improved call systems to summon emergency personnel, and better medical treatment.
Medici, an avid surfer from Revere, was boogie boarding 300 yards offshore when he was dragged underwater and badly bitten by a shark. He died from his injuries, marking the first fatal shark attack in Massachusetts since 1936.
Because cellphone service at Cape beaches is spotty, officials have installed emergency landline phones in many beach parking lots. The phones automatically dial 911 when picked up. Many beaches also have publicly accessible “stop-the-bleed” kits with a tourniquet and special bandages that encourage blood clotting.
Suzanne Grout Thomas, Wellfleet’s beach administrator, said lifeguards were trained to use the kits, but they can also be used by beachgoers to “stem the bleeding until paramedics and ambulance could arrive.”
Grout Thomas said the town also bought an inflatable boat with a jet engine, which lifeguards can use to check for sharks if someone reports seeing a fin in the water. On Saturday, Wellfleet will receive an off-road vehicle that can quickly traverse sand dunes with a medical kit and stretcher, she said.
