SCARBOROUGH, Maine – White shark sightings have become a growing concern this summer in southern Maine, prompting local law enforcement to remind swimmers, surfers and shoreline visitors to stay alert after several sharks were documented on video and camera.

Marine researchers say there have been more reported white shark sightings this season, but they caution that the numbers may be influenced by sunny weather drawing larger crowds to the beach and by more people intentionally scanning the water for signs of sharks.

“I would say there’s no question that there’s been a lot more sightings this year. Does that translate into a higher number of sharks is a little bit of a nuanced question. There’s a lot of things to consider in there,” said Dr. Walt Golet, assistant professor of marine sciences at the University of Maine.

“While sighting reports are very helpful, the number of sightings reported to us is often influenced by nice weather and the number of people at the beach,” said Matt Davis, marine resource scientist at the Maine Department of Marine Resources. “We’ve had great weather this year for beach tourism, and we also have a number of people with drones actively looking for sharks, so sightings are high.”

Daryen Granata, harbor master and marine resource officer for the town of Scarborough, said the police department began receiving numerous shark sighting reports in early July. Several were captured on video.

“They were off of Pine Point Beach for a substantial amount of time,” said Granata. “They’ve kind of migrated now. They’re more off the Scarborough Beach State Park and Higgins Beach area at this point. We’re still seeing them on a daily basis. Still to this day, and it’s been, you know, three weeks at this point.”

Granata, who has lived in Scarborough for more than 30 years, said shark sightings have become much more common in recent years, especially sightings of juvenile sharks. But whether that means there are actually more sharks in the Gulf of Maine is less clear.

“We have all this drone technology. We have all the cell phone videos. We’ve got a lot of higher-grade technology than we did, you know, 10 or 15, 20 years ago. So we’re seeing them,” said Granata.

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Granata said the police department captures its own drone footage of sharks, as do independent photographers and beachgoers. Social media has added another stream of reported sightings, all of which can contribute to the perception that there are more sharks in the area.

“Previously, people weren’t looking for sharks with the same intensity or aerial equipment,” said Davis.

Researchers say white shark populations have been slowly recovering for decades after the federal government put protections in place in the 1990s. Maine’s seal population has also grown, providing a key food source for white sharks.

“It’s very possible that the number of white sharks we see now is more reflective of their natural population size, or at least the closest it’s been to the natural population size in several decades,” explained Davis. “Think of this as a population success story in that the ocean is regaining one of its apex predators to help balance the food chain.”

“If you protect the food and protect the predator, it makes sense that you see this rebound especially since the generation time for white sharks is about 25 to 30 years,” said Golet. “I also think that there’s a lot of bait around along the Maine coast in the form of striped bass and Atlantic menhaden, both of which are eaten by juvenile white sharks, which is what we have in high numbers.”

Researchers say warming ocean temperatures could eventually lead sharks to remain in the Gulf of Maine for longer periods. That could make frequent shark sightings a more regular occurrence along the coast.

“There are definitely more sharks in Maine than I’ve ever seen in my entire life,” said Kelsey Donohue, who’s lived in Scarborough her whole life. “Like growing up here, we used to joke around about sharks, but we would be like, ‘oh, we live in Maine, so we never see sharks!'”

“This really is the first time that I’ve heard for Pine Point that we had a shark sighting,” said Betty MacLeod, longtime Scarborough resident.

The Scarborough Police Department is urging people to stay vigilant while in the water.

Officials recommend that people swimming in areas where sharks have been spotted avoid dawn and dusk, when sharks can be more active, and never swim alone. They also recommend avoiding murky water and remaining in waist-deep water or shallower.

Beachgoers with open wounds should stay out of the water. Officials also advise swimmers to remove jewelry before entering the water.

“Just be cognizant of what you’re doing and where you are,” said Granata. “Just have good situational awareness, that’s all.”

Comedian Bill Maher took a swipe at liberals upset over President Donald Trump’s move to rename Lake Ontario, joking that the left is hardly unfamiliar with changing names to suit a political message.

During Friday’s opening monologue on HBO’s “Real Time,” Maher riffed on Trump’s decision to rebrand one of the Great Lakes as “Lake America” amid a continuing trade dispute with Canada.

“Trump is so mad at Canada he renamed Lake Ontario Lake America,” Maher quipped. “Now I gotta buy a new globe again.”

“It’s like the fifth time it’s happened,” he continued, alluding to Trump’s earlier renaming of the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America.”

The joke came as trade negotiations between the U.S. and Canada collapsed late Friday, with Washington pressing ahead with 50% tariffs on Canadian goods.

Maher then took aim at liberal outrage over the president’s decision, suggesting critics of Trump’s move had embraced politically driven changes in terminology themselves.

“The liberals are very pissed at this,” Maher quipped. “They say you can’t just go around changing things to fit your political agenda. Just ask any Latinx birthing person.”

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Trump signed the executive order renaming the lake from the Oval Office on Thursday, telling reporters, “This is official, effective immediately.”

Maher’s criticism was echoed by NewsBusters Managing Editor Curtis Houck, who told Fox News Digital that liberals’ willingness to embrace new terminology undermines their criticism of Trump’s latest decision.

“The fact that ‘Latinx’ and ‘birthing person’ are increasingly accepted as a punchline rather than a serious demographic statement should give all of us hope that ‘Woke 1’ is dead, and we’re never going back to that farcical time,” Houck told Fox News Digital.

“If only the liberal, elitist media could more consistently get the picture,” he continued. “The left needs to take a seat before they can say anything about anything being renamed.”

The sentiment was echoed by NewsBusters Executive Editor Tim Graham.

“Liberals want to rename all kinds of things to satisfy their urge for wokeness,” Graham told Fox News Digital. “Just in this decade, they’ve pulled down all kinds of statues and renamed scads of military bases. What they hate is anything Trump does to add a patriotic pro-America tinge to something which they associate more with his ego than with patriotism. They see red  — as in a red MAGA cap.

“The media routinely genuflect ethnic and LGBTQ pressure groups and their demands to remake the language we’re all supposed to use,” he continued. “So, they can’t seriously object to renaming things. They just want to be the only people who get to rename things.”

Dick Van Dyke continues to make a compelling case for the power of staying active, proving that a steady mix of exercise and stretching can help preserve mobility well into the milestone age of 100.

The Mary Poppins legend was up to his old tricks as he shared an Instagram video of himself strapped upside down to an inversion table, the hashtag ‘keep moving’ added for positive reinforcement.

With his signature white hair and beard, the beloved entertainer appeared to turn back the clock as he stretched with his slippered feet lifted high and his head lowered, using the move to decompress his spine and keep his body limber.

Adding a fitting soundtrack to the moment, Moonspatz’s song Keep Stretching played in the background, underscoring the routine’s playful but purposeful tone.

Van Dyke’s commitment to fitness is well established. The screen legend is known to visit the gym as often as three times a week, where he uses weight machines, completes circuit training and focuses heavily on stretching, with abdominal exercises playing a key role in maintaining his overall strength.

Although Van Dyke recently used a walker while out with his wife, Arlene Silver, his energy in the gym has become part of his legend. According to the Today show, Cheers star Ted Danson once saw him dancing between machines instead of simply walking, and singer Rick Springfield reportedly witnessed the same lively approach on another occasion.

In December, Van Dyke celebrated his milestone 100th birthday.

To mark the special occasion, his wife led a flash mob in dancing to a medley of the actor’s songs, and they were joined by family and friends for a party at their Malibu home.

‘It went so perfect — just everything,’ Arlene told People at the time. ‘And he was so happy. His face, I love to make him have that face. This felt so perfect.’

The former make-up artist, 54, admitted she felt ‘relieved, grateful and so happy’ with how the day turned out.

Van Dyke recently credited his long years to giving up cigarettes and alcohol in his 50s.

Speaking at the Vandy High Tea fundraising event – which raised money for The Van Dyke Endowment of the Arts and The Dick Van Dyke Museum – at his home, the song and dance man told how he was ‘probably the last person alive’ who got to know and spend time with Walt Disney before the animation legend died of lung cancer in 1966.

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‘He was a wonderful guy. He just smoked too much! Doggone,’ he said, according to People.

Van Dyke’s son, Barry Van Dyke, 75, noted his dad had ‘never smoked too much’ himself, but The Chitty Chitty Bang Bang star admitted that wasn’t the case.

‘I smoked a lot, actually!’ Van Dyke corrected. ‘I think I was probably in my 50s before it dawned on me that I had an addictive personality. If I liked something, I was going to overdo it.

‘So I got rid of booze and cigarettes and all that stuff, which is probably why I’m still here.’

But Van Dyke admitted he feels ‘lonely’ and ‘frustrated’ in his old age because he’s outlived most of his best friends and he rarely gets to attend glitzy showbiz events because of his declining health.

‘Though I still do guest spots on TV, and ads and videos, I miss going to the studio every day for a regular series. And every single one of my dearest lifelong friends is gone, which feels just as lonely as it sounds,’ as he revealed in an article written for The Times newspaper.

He added: ‘It’s frustrating to feel diminished in the world, physically and socially.

‘I get invites to events or offers for gigs in New York or Chicago, but that kind of travel takes so much out of me that I have to say no. Almost all of my visiting with folks has to happen at my house.’