Taking a bite out of unemployment

Put your best foot forward, if you dare

Pool sales soar on Cape Cod as tourists flee the beach

With at least 42 shark sightings tallied on Cape Cod even since just Aug. 1, local pool-construction businesses have reported sales skyrocketing as much as 40 percent, the Boston Globe said.

“They have told us that it’s because they’re afraid of the shark[s],” said Penelope Rich, who owns the Cape Cod Pool Company in Orleans with her husband, David, of customers. “They want to go to the beach and feel the sand on their feet and feel the water but then want to go home to their pools.”

David Cavatorta, who owns Seaside Pool Service in Yarmouth, said he can hardly keep up with increased sales, up as much as 30 percent.

“It’s been kind of crazy, to be truthful,” Cavatorta told the Globe. “I think more people are ready to say, ‘You know what? I want to hang out at the house, I want to put some money into it.’ ” ….

Another business owner in Orleans, Craig Panaccione, said a woman called his Crossroads Landscape and Pools on Monday to say she was at the breaking point over the beach closures and shark sightings, particularly after she got a recent alert on an app called Sharktivity.

Panaccione of Cape Cod said he understood the woman’s apprehension to get into the ocean, as he no longer swims far offshore due to concerns about having a frightening shark encounter — like the Massachusetts family whose boat was brushed by a great white shark on Cape Cod Bay last week.

The area’s booming backyard-pool business is also a boon to those who service pools, one owner told the Globe.

“Sharks are good for business,” said Matt Wester of the Aqua Pool Company.

Of course, if sharks aren’t enough to keep you out of the seven seas, there’s this: “Swimmer’s itch” reported at Greenwich beaches.