Posted on 12/01/2020 12:18:00 PM PST by Capt. Tom
A great white shark got its Thanksgiving feast over the weekend.
The shark was spotted thrashing around Wellfleet Harbor at high tide Sunday. The predator was apparently devouring a seal off the Cape Cod coast.
The animal’s ultimate holiday banquet was caught on camera by fisherman Keith Rose of the “Kimberly Ann” fishing vessel, according to the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy (AWSC), a nonprofit that supports scientific research and tracks shark sightings.
“There’s a great white finishing off his seal,” the fisherman can be heard saying in one of two videos the conservancy posted.
Rose, stunned, proceeds to tell the other person aboard the Kimberly Ann to put the boat in neutral, as the shark swims away from its bloody prey and nears the vessel.
“This is a great white shark. Check it out, a great white, a beautiful great white shark,” Rose says. “We just witnessed a shark attack. He’s eating that.”
Great white sightings along the coast of Cape Cod so close to winter are not unheard of, though they are much rarer than shark alerts in the summer.
Seasonal shark sightings off the Massachusetts coast have increased in recent years, and the outer Cape is one of the most popular locations for great whites, according to the state Division of Marine Fisheries.
White sharks, another name for great whites, move broadly throughout the North Atlantic, the agency said. When the predator leaves Cape Cod in late fall, it migrates to habitats off the southeastern coast of the U.S. and the Gulf of Mexico.
The AWSC noted Sunday’s sighting in Wellfleet Harbor serves as a reminder that although Massachusetts is beyond its peak shark season, great whites are still in the area.
“We are extremely grateful to the fishing community and other nature observers who have shared their footage of white sharks with us this past season,” the conservancy added. “Public reports are a valuable part of learning more about white shark movement and behavior off our coast.”
White shark sightings in Mass. during the fall and winter are rare because there are less whites here, and less people out in boats, or flying, or swimming to observe them.
Occasionally a white shark is spotted here in Mass. during mid winter (Jan.- Feb.) but rarely photographed.
A few years ago I went down to Plymouth MA and interviewed Eddie Fairweather, a local fisherman who caught a white shark in his gillnet in mid winter .
I will try to post that photo in this link or at least give you the URL. The photo in 1938, was taken by a newspaper, these days cell phone camera photos are very prevalent. -Tom
That was a scuba diver the shark was eating.
whites are great?
I’d guess if there’s food/seals you’ll find a few predators. Makes sense to me.
Nice shot, you interviewed him in 1938 ?
Everybody knows you don’t eat seal after Labor Day!....................
“Seals gotta swim...sharks gotta eat.”
Hope you had a nice Thanksgiving, Capt. Tom!
Now, why the heck did you post that.
The shark was clearly said to be munching on a seal, not a whale.
I was 3 years old in 1938. Eddie was bout 20 years old then.
Edie has of course since passed way.
I interviewed him about 20 years ago. -Tom
“If Richard Dreyfuss cut that shark open, I wonder how many Biden ballots he would find?”
Answer: How many more does Hiden need to win?
Great white spotted munching on seal off Cape Cod coast well after peak shark season
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Guess the shark didn’t get the memo.
Mo' be Dick
Yike—I had out of state friends at their house in Wellfleet for the holiday weekend. Great town.
.
Now, that’s more like it! JAWS! MEAL IS UP!
It’s the ocean, sharks live in the ocean. Did you expect them at the gym?
Marlon Brando?
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