25-Foot Shark Swims Up To Boat: Washington Boaters Encounter Rare Basking Shark

Boaters in Washington encountered a huge shark while they were on the waters of Puget Sound last Saturday. Grace Coale and her father were out boating near Meadowdale Wharf off Edmonds when Coale noticed a 3-foot fin rising out of the water. My Northwest reports that whatever the unknown creature was, it began swimming towards their boat.

Coale recalls:

“By the way the fin was pointed, we could tell it was coming towards us. The motors were off and we were just sort of quiet and waited for it to approach us. It could have touched the boat. It was very close.”

Realizing what was in the water, Coale describes a momentary feeling of fear.

“There was a moment where it was sort of like ‘Jaws,’ but mostly I wasn’t afraid because I really knew what it was,” she shares

What she and her dad had come across was a 25-foot basking shark, which is said to be “an extremely rare sight in the Puget Sound.”

Coale had a little more knowledge than the average person for the rare basking shark because at one point she wanted to be a marine biologist. As Coale explains, these sharks are considered “virtually extinct in local waters.” Fisherman began killing them because they saw them as a nuisance, according to the National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration.

The 19-year-old snapped some photos of the 25-foot shark and sent them to NOAA.

NOAA would like anyone who sees a basking shark to contact them by calling 858-334-2884, or email NOAA at basking.shark@noaa.gov.

“It was extremely exciting,” Coale says.

According to Seattle Times, Dr. Heidi Dewar, a fishery-research biologist with NOAA, confirms that what Grace Coale saw was a basking shark.

The report reveals that basking sharks reach an average length of 30-feet. The species is only rare to Puget Sound because hunting and bycatching reduced their numbers greatly, Dewar says. In the 1900s, Canada had an eradication program that allowed sharks to be killed if they were captured in salmon nets.

Dewar further reveals that the way fisherman tried eliminating basking sharks by attaching blades to their boats when they sailed through areas known for having a high number of sharks, Dewar adds.

Rare sharks are sometimes spotted in various places around the country, as The Inquisitr has reported before. Another rare goblin shark was seen in Florida back in May. It was the first sighting in over a decade.

[Photo Credit: Grace Coale / My Northwest]