BOSTON -- A record five great white sharks have been tagged of the coast of Chatham in the past three days, wildlife officials said Monday. It is the first time great white sharks have been tagged in the Atlantic Ocean.

Three sharks were tagged on Monday morning, and two were tagged on Saturday, said Lisa Capone, of the Office Energy and Environmental Affairs.

Wildlife experts said they may be 10 or more great white sharks off the coast of the Cape. Hundreds of seals have gathered in the area, luring the sharks closer to shore.

"It is hard to get a real number because we don’t know if we are double-counting, but it wouldn't surprise me if there were eight or nine or 10 or more fish out there," marine biologist Greg Skomal said.

On Saturday, a state biologist and a team of Cape Cod fishermen became the first group to successfully tag a great white shark in the Atlantic Ocean, placing tracking devices on two sharks off the coast of Chatham, according to the Department of Marine Fisheries.

Biologists from the Massachusetts Shark Research Program have been closely monitoring the waters near Monomy Island to locate and identify sharks after five were spotted in the waters off Cape Cod on Thursday.

"This is the first time I have seen then this close to home and it is amazing," Skomal said.

Researchers use the tags to record where sharks travel, allowing scientists to better understand their migratory patterns. Great whites that have been tagged off the coasts of South Africa and Australia have provided researchers with valuable data about the vulnerability of sharks to human fishing patterns.

No fewer than a dozen shark species, including makos, blue sharks and thresher sharks, swim in and out of New England waters each year, according to the Division of Marine Fisheries. The sharks are common in the area because of the thousands of seals that call Chatham home.

Several beaches were closed to swimmers this weekend after sharks were spotted, and will remain off-limits to swimmers until the middle of the week, safety officials said.

"These animals are up here in the harbor, which isn’t surprising that they are here. So we are going to expand the No Swimming area to up here into the harbor as well," Chatham Harbormaster Stuart Smith said.

Swimming is prohibited at North Beach, Lighthouse Beach, South Beach and Andrew Harding’s Lane in Chatham.