iStockphoto / Dirk Hoffmann
Two people on a Nantucket beach last week thought they had spotted a beached whale and immediately sprung into action. Upon closer inspection it wasn’t a whale at all and was instead a great white shark, albeit what appeared to be a juvenile great white and not one that’s bigger than a typical boat.
Nantucket during the Summer is one of the hottest spots in the world for great white shark activity. That whole region of Massachusetts including Cape Cod is home to countless seal colonies which make for perfect hunting grounds for juvenile and adult white sharks alike. It is also believed to be a fertile breeding ground but more research needs to be done in that area.
All that is to say that nobody should have been particularly shocked to see this great white shark in the area but coming upon one stuck on the beach is also never expected. They quickly hopped into action, then realized it was a shark, got a little spooked, but had the presence of mind to recognize that if they didn’t save this shark and push it back out to sea it could very likely die and they did exactly that, saving the young shark’s life in the process.
These sharks hang around Cape Cod and Nantucket until early-to-mid Fall so they will be there for another two months, give or take a few weeks. According to reports, this shark swam back out to see after it was rescued.
It is unclear what led up to this shark finding itself beached on the sand but it isn’t uncommon for marine animals to become disoriented in fast moving tides and then get swept up by waves closer to the shore.
In September of last year, a similar incident unfolded in my home state of Florida when a 10-foot mako shark was found washed up on the beach in need of rescuing. The incident went viral at the time and the person doing the rescuing did take a nice slap from the shark while getting it back into the water.