Posted on 09/06/2009 7:26:58 AM PDT by Libloather
3 great whites are ID’d off coast
Tags put on 2 sharks; some beaches closed
By Meghan E. Irons
Globe Staff / September 6, 2009
The fisherman had just one shot to mark the great white.
Captain Bill Chaprales walked to the front of his 22-foot harpoon vessel, raised the 12-foot-long tagging pole, and threw it purposefully onto the back side of the enormous shark, which was 4 to 5 feet below the surface.
Tagged.
“He did it in one shot,’’ said state biologist Greg Skomal, whose team tagged two great whites yesterday. “We don’t swing the bat unless it’s a strike. It’s got to be a perfect shot.’’
As Chatham officials announced they were closing all of the town’s East Side beaches, state marine biologists were pulling off the high-tech accomplishment out on the ocean.
The first shark was tagged at 9 a.m. near the southern tip of Monomoy Island, off Chatham. A second was tagged at 3:30 p.m. about a mile north of the first - each with a single move. A third was also spotted but not tagged.
“They were right around a 1,000 pounds apiece,’’ said Chaprales, a 58-year-old tuna fisherman and lobsterman from Marstons Mills, a village in Barnstable.
Chaprales said he had worked with biologists at the New England Aquarium years ago to tag other species of sharks and bluefin tuna.
“We’ve done this before,’’ he said. “It doesn’t hurt the sharks.’’
The tagging occurred days after officials set out to identify the species of five sharks seen about a mile off Monomoy Island last week. As of yesterday, marine scientists had identified three great white sharks in that area.
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
“That’s a twenty footer!”......”Twen-ty Fiv-e”.........
I’m sorry, but we call them Sea Kittens now! PETA has decided the renaming creates a more soft, cuddly and friendly view of our ocean-going friends.
Here kitty, kitty...
“We don’t swing the bat unless it’s a strike.”
What game are they playing?
The boat they used is about 32 feet long and not 22 feet as the article said.- Tom
LOL!!
Does anyone one to make any guesses as to how much air time this story will receive tomorrow on the broadcast morning shows compared to the amount of time Van Jones will receive - if any?
Close the beaches.
What is the name of that planton eating shark, I believe it gets absolutely huge. It might have been what you saw, 23 feet is quite large, even for a Great white.
“It doesn’t hurt the sharks.’’
And you know this how?
” 3 great whites are ID’d off coast “
Racist bastards.
ROTF! Ditto :)
was in Beverly mass on my birthday aug 22nd in either 95 or 96 and fisherman brought in an 18 footer caught in his gill nets. it was dead of course but just immense and when the new england aquarium staff got there and dissected it an entire dolphin spilled out on to the dock. It was impressive. The whole town came down to the dock that day.
basking shark or maybe whale shark. both veggies.
However, it's moderately rare to see them in the warm waters of the mid-Atlantic.
Well, at least two anyway....
Call it a kitty if you want to, but it still smells like fish.
25!
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