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.”
Ted Kennedy
I wonder if Barry Clifford would have had the same peace of mind salvaging the Whydah wreck today versus 35 years ago in light of the Great White population?
I have thought of that myself but the timing worked in Cliffords favor.
He discovered the wreck of the pirate ship Whydah (1717) in relatively shallow water off Marconi Beach Wellfleet, Cape Cod in 1984.
With the exploding seal population, that area started to attract white sharks about about 20 years later when seals cut in half started to show up ashore on the beach.
In 2008 Tuna spotter pilot Wayne Davis took photos of a white shark close to shore south of Wellleet, and in 2009 tagging white sharks began and is ongoing to this day.
The Whydah wrecksite at Marconi Beach is a white shark sighting hot spot these days- but Clifford had plenty of years to recover artifacts like coins and canons etc. from the Whydah before the whites dominated that area. -Tom
Any idea what that GW weighed/measured??
Yours, TMN78247
I remember Eddie saying he caught it on the coldest day of the year, around the first of February, and it weighed about 1200 lbs.
When he caught that shark in 1938, it would have been called a "MANEATER" , since the name "white shark" didn't come into the vocabulary for 20 more years.- TOM
THANKS for the info.
In some places the GW is still commonly referred to as a “Maneater”.
Yours, TMN78247
ROTFLMRAO.
Yours, TMN78247
Due to my sometimes “failing memory” I cannot remember the name of the NC pier where, for a LONG time, the IGFA world “all tackle” record for GW was landed..
On that same day & location, TWO MUCH LARGER Great Whites were hooked but NOT landed by fishermen.
Yours, TMN78247
Here in Mass. the white sharks are spreading out, and have gotten the attention of many people and scientific Groups.
Next season in 2021 I expect a lot of white shark press and sightings because of the focus on them will be increasing.
A new white shark study consortium was just formed involving all of New England, and Canada - Tom
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From Cape Cod Times Excerpt-
“New England White Shark Research Consortium, which was launched Tuesday. It has 13 member organizations, including the local Atlantic White Shark Conservancy, Center for Coastal Studies, Atlantic Shark Institute in Rhode Island, the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Dartmouth, Arizona State University, New England Aquarium, environmental or fisheries departments from Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine, NOAA and Fisheries and Oceans Canada.”
Once more, I suggest that the new group start a nationwide “fundraising effort” to discover a LOT more about these fascinating creatures.
There are a GREAT MANY of us “shark nuts” in the USA who would get involved in the research IF we were asked.
Also, I believe that the time has finally come when “ON PERMIT” hunting of both GW & seals is possible/acceptable, just as licensed hunting of alligators/crocodiles is permitted & WELL-controlled.
(Personally, I would buy both of us a sealskin coat/jacket/stroller, IF those garments were available again. - I even wore my sealskin jacket with “nice jeans” for years, until the criminal broke into my PU & stole mine.)
Yours, TMN78247
Since the new Consortium formed here in New England and Canada, has added in 11 more groups to the original Mass. Div. of Marine Fisheries and Atl. White Shark Conservancy , to study white sharks next year, 2021, we should be inundated with all kinds of white shark info, at least here in New England. -Tom
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