Shark sighting in Westport, Mass., bonus for Shark Week enthusiasts
Shark! A large fin was spotted in the waters off of Horseneck Beach in Massachusetts, prompting officials to close the beach. The city of Westport joined Chatham in recent shark sightings in the Bay State.
A shark sighting in Westport, Mass., forces closure of beach as sightings in the region are on the rise with great white sharks recently being spotted off Cape Cod as well. Here, an Israeli resident catches a wave aboard an inflatable shark, in the Mediterranean sea in Ashkelon, Israel, on July 31.
Tsafrir Abayov/AP
Boston
Most shark afficionados are having their predatory-fish needs met this week by the Discovery Channel's Shark Week. But Josh Gonsalves of Westport, Mass., has gotten some firsthand interaction.
The teen fisherman and his father were two miles off of Horseneck Beach in search of bluefish, when Josh saw the telltale fin.
Cue the Jaws theme.
Boston Globe correspondent Jeff Fish reported that Gonsalves at first thought the shark was a sunfish, but then realized it was neither a sunfish, nor one of the 20 weirdest fish in the ocean, but a member of the superorder Selachimorpha.
“I was pretty scared,” Gonsalves told the Globe. “Just thinking that there’s something bigger in the water than you—what if I fell in? I knew I had to get out of there and I did.”
Gonsalves estimated that the shark was 10-12 feet long, but couldn't see the entire body. Westport Harbormaster Richard Earle believes the bluefish attracted the shark to the area, and closed Horseneck Beach for two hours.
Recently, great white shark sightings off Massachusetts have prompted the closure of five miles of South Beach off Chatham.
Those of you who are bummed you haven't had your own in-the-flesh shark moment, there's still the rest of Shark Week to get your fill!
Tonight's Shark Week premiere is "Shark Bite Beach," where the Discovery Channel recounts shark attacks on the coast of California and Mexico in 2008, as the search for reasons of why sharks mistake humans for prey continues.
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