Thankfully, another year passed without a great white shark attack on a human. The last documented attack was on a swimmer in Truro in 2012, with an attack on kayakers off Plymouth in 2014.

It certainly wasn’t because the sharks were no longer frequenting our shores.

In the third year of a shark population study, state Division of Marine Lisheries shark researcher Greg Skomal reached a milestone this year, tagging the 100th great white since he started tagging them for research back in 2009. In the three years of the study, Skomal and fellow researcher John Chisholm — whose work is funded by the nonprofit Atlantic White Shark Conservancy, and this year also by state money — have catalogued identification markings for 200 great whites seen in Cape waters.

Documented sightings of great whites for the past year reveal that they are regular visitors to Cape beaches, particularly along the Outer Cape from Chatham to Provincetown.

The shark season kicked off June 11 with the first detection of an acoustic signal from a tagged shark off Chatham a month earlier than the previous year. It was no surprise that Scratchy, a 13-foot tagged great white, was prowling close to shore off the Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge home to the largest gray seal colony in the US.

But, just like last year, the bulk of the shark population appeared to leave the Monomoy area by August and move north, up the coastline to where the region’s most popular swimming and surfing beaches are located. Nauset Beach in Orleans was one beach experiencing multiple sightings and closures as it had the year before, but beaches all along the Outer Cape were closed at some point.

Sharks also were spotted in Cape Cod Bay and the last detections on a ring of acoustic receivers moored in shallow water along the Cape’s coastline were three tagged great whites in Cape Cod Bay over Thanksgiving weekend, caught on receivers in Dennis, Barnstable, and Sandwich at the mouth of eastern end of the Cape Cod Canal.

The Sharktivity app for mobile phones was one new component in a comprehensive approach to beach safety taken by the regional shark working group.

Paid for by the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy, the app allowed the general public and town, state and federal beach safety officials to report their sightings and have them broadcast immediately to subscribers. Over 100,000 people also downloaded the app and received alerts of confirmed and unconfirmed sightings.

Filmed encounters with great whites also demonstrated how close to shore they were this past year as videos off Truro showed sharks willing to risk beaching themselves to pursue seals in waters that were just a few feet deep. Scientists also reported seeing great whites in the waves frequented by swimmers and surfers. Spotter pilot Wayne Davis shot photos of Orleans paddleboarder Terence Roche unknowingly paddling toward a great white who was between him and shore at Nauset Beach. Just before Halloween a 12-foot great white washed up dead onto Nauset likely after beaching itself while chasing a seal.

— Follow Doug Fraser on Twitter:@dougfrasercct.