Great white shark dies on Cape Cod beach despite valiant rescue attempt
Hundreds of people were enjoying a Sunday morning on the Cape when an unexpected beachgoer showed up on the shore. A 14-foot great white shark stranded itself on Whitecrest Beach in Wellfleet, where it would eventually die despite a frenzied effort to return it to the water.
Robyn Schnaible told The Boston Globe that she and her family saw a crowd of about 100 people, including police, lifeguards and vacationers, passing buckets filled with water that they were dumping on the shark.
She filmed a video of the attempted rescue, in which the shark is shown being dragged back into the water as onlookers cheer. She told The Globe that, after people dug a trench around the shark, someone tied a rope to one end of its tail. Another person then swam to a boat off shore with the other end of the rope. As the boat traveled away from the shore, the crowd dragged the shark back to the water, but it was too late. The shark went belly up as soon as it was in the ocean.
During the rescue attempt, photographer Jack Cohen said he saw seals swimming out in the water looking relieved, as well as surfers who seemed unfazed by the shark on the shore.
“I’ve been going to that beach my whole life and I’ve never seen a great white that close up,’’ he said. “But it’s sad. As much as we can be afraid of them, we do want them to be alive and healthy out in the water.’’
Greg Skomal, a shark expert with the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, told The Globe the shark was probably dead before the beachgoers were able to get it back in the water.
“There’s only so much you can do — it’s a fish out of water,’’ Skomal said in the report. “They’re basically drowning.’’
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It’s worth noting that this shark was not Tom Brady, the great white tagged by the Atlantic Shark Conservancy last week, who was named on the same day as Brady’s deflategate victory.
You can read the full report in The Globe here.
Related gallery: New England sharks
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