Posted on 07/29/2020 1:15:56 PM PDT by Capt. Tom
ORLEANS, Mass. — Numerous great white sharks have been spotted this week off the Massachusetts coast, often causing beaches to close as a precaution.
A shark sighting was reported at Nauset Beach in Orleans around 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, according to a message relayed by the Sharktivity app from the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy. The water was closed to swimming for an hour as a precaution.
Another sighting was reported in the same area Tuesday after a shark attacked a seal about 20 yards off the beach. Additional sightings were reported Monday and Tuesday near Chatham.
Additionally, a possible sighting was reported Wednesday near White Horse Beach in Plymouth. The public beach was closed while the harbormaster investigated.
Skomal was also involved in positively identifying the animal that killed a woman in Maine earlier this week was a great white shark.
Capt. Tom gave me the Plymouth Harbor link... it was a post or two down.
Nice fish! They don’t normally come into shore like that. Almost looked like a shark, but I don’t see a dorsal fin.
Reduce their food source and they will leave.
Everybody start eating baby seals.
“Almost looked like a shark, but I don’t see a dorsal fin.”
—
Simple explanation - he forgot to put it on before he left home this morning.
I was hoping you would get in the action on an SUP (Stand Up Paddleboard) .
Measure the SUPs length, say 11 feet ,and when you paddle out you have a chance to better estimate the sharks length.
If you make it back you can post here and give us the location and size of the shark. -Tom
SHARKS ?? Now its Sharks …..
What other freaking disasters in store for this year ??
10 plagues of Egypt
Asteroid impact
Zombie apocalypse
Biden winning election ………….
The fishermen are usually using mackerel for bait to catch striped bass .
The fishermen wade out to waist deep water and cast the bait out .
Every once in a awhile they manage to land a small tuna on striped bass gear. -Tom
My oldest grandson has been known to do flips off Minot Light. Hopefully we’ve gotten through to him that it’s a bad idea. One of his friend’s family saw a BIG shark right around the lighthouse 2 years ago.
You are correct.
Great, free movie about GWS:
https://www.pbs.org/video/great-white-shark-new-perspectives-of-an-ancient-predator-zidgxv/
Back in the 1800's, fishermen on the Great Lakes hunted them to extinction and our state of Michigan never regretted it........
White shark season should be an open fishing season
I live in Bricktown. We’re about 8 miles in from the coast. I never cared for the ocean much. I learned a long time ago what swims around in it.
And it’s not only big fish with sharp teeth. Stinging Jellyfish can be a problem. With this heat wave I’m expecting the slimy things will be showing up soon.
About two years ago there was a pregnant Great White prowling off the Jersey beaches. They named her “Mary’’ She was about 14 ft. They tagged her. Mary was a gal who got around. She ranged up and down the Eastern Seaboard. Don’t know where she got to though, think they lost track of her.
https://www.nbcboston.com/news/local/what-we-know-about-maines-1st-ever-deadly-shark-attack/2168068/
I remember that , and white sharks are definitely in our area and have been caught, actually a couple of years ago one was brought in to the Scituate fish pier, and other whites have pinged on hydrophones locally.
There is a shark hydrophone buoy at the mouth of the South river. Very close to the "SPIT" that I am sure you have visited.-Tom
Apparently today 7/29 around 3:30PM a white shark was seen near Cousins Island which is between Yarmouth and Falmouth Maine.
Check it out for us will you? -Tom
SUP shark viewing works best if you drag a chum bag.
A shark sighting near Cousins Island in Yarmouth in the afternoon triggered an alert from the town of Cumberland. “Out of an abundance of caution, we are advising that residents do not enter the water at Broad Cove Reserve beyond ankle-deep,” the town’s alert said.
...
The Maine Department of Marine Resources said it also received two other reports of shark sightings Wednesday, both near Popham Beach in Phippsburg. The marine patrol was using boats and aircraft to scan the Casco Bay region for sharks for a second day Wednesday, but the patrols were not able to substantiate any of the three reports, said Jeff Nichols, a spokesman for the department.
You have the same problem in Maine spotting sharks as we do north of Cape Cod, and that is because the water is deeper and the bottom darker.
White sharks are primarily bottom huggers and they show up well in the shallow sandy bottoms of the Easterly Cape Cod beaches.
IMHO Whites eat a seal about once a week or every 10 days so after eating a seal they can cruise to a new location about 20-50 miles per day away from the seal kill.
No problem for a white shark to eat a seal in Mass. and cruise all the way up to Maine and Canada in a week. And then pick another meal target. You can expect shark hydrophone buoys for shark ping detection buoys to be placed along the Maine coast now.
And remember the untagged sharks outnumber the tagged ones, and the hydrophone buoys won't pick up untagged sharks.-Tom
IF you/our members want to know what REALLY happened to the crew of the USS INDIANOPOLIS, check out the books IN HARM’S WAY by Doug Stanton & ALL THE DROWNED SAILORS by Raymond B. Lech.
880 sailors of The INDIANAPOLIS died after she was torpedoed, with about HALF “taken by sharks”..
Fwiw, when I was in undergraduate school in 1968, I interviewed the former PO2 Niles F. Richardson, USNR for our college’s quarterly Arts & Humanities magazine. - He said that he spent most of the days from the night of the sinking until the survivors were rescued “- - - - in one of the floating nets”, as “My legs was broke, real bad. You got to understand that I was hurt a lot less than some was.”
(Mr. Richardson passed away quietly in his sleep at Christmas 1969 from congestive heart failure.)
Yours, TMN78247
That sounds absolutely horrific, and I don’t think I want to read about it.
I can’t imagine what mental scars are left with the survivors.
Fwiw, I was “- - - the weird kid, who is crazy about sharks.” when other kids were crazed about dinosaurs. - I have been reading about & collecting books/data upon sharks since about 1958.
My passions are fishing for, catching/tagging/measuring/releasing sharks of several sorts for over 60 years.
Yours, TMN78247
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.