Reported shark sighting prompts closure of Duxbury Beach

DUXBURY, MASS. (WHDH) - Duxbury Beach was closed Friday following a reported shark sighting, officials said.

Duxbury Beach Operations said in a tweet just before 2 p.m. that the beach was shut down due to an “unconfirmed” shark sighting near the shoreline.

Police say a boater reported seeing the shark, which triggered a response from the State Police Airwing,

“We were just on the beach and then we heard on the loudspeakers that they were shutting down the beach,” one woman said. “Then there were lifeguards walking around and telling everybody to come out if the water.

After an hour of searching, and no other reported sightings, the beach was determined to be safe to reopen to the public.

Despite the all-clear, some beachgoers said they would swim some other day.

“I was not going in the water for the rest of the day even if it wasn’t a shark,” one woman said from her beach chair.

The Harbormaster said that a White Shark detection buoy was deployed earlier this week to detect any tagged sharks that come within 200 meters of any of the town beaches.

They have not confirmed if they have received any data from the buoy.

(Copyright (c) 2026 Sunbeam Television. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)