New Shark Sighting Off Massachusetts Coast Likely Same Great White In Kayak Attack
Just one day after a shark attack by a great white on two women kayaking off the coast of Plymouth, Massachusetts, a new shark sighting was reported about 400 yards off of Peggotty beach in Scituate, Masachusetts — a town approximately 20 miles from Plymouth.
A marine biologist at Boston University said he believes that the shark spotted Thursday is the same one that staged the attack Wednesday.
The possible Great White shark was spotted by boater David Garfield, who says he was bringing his 21-foot Seacraft boat back into the bay at about 6:30 pm when he saw a huge shark leap out of the water.
“I was almost on the south side of the south side of Peggotty Beach, Third Cliff. I was probably about 400 to 500 yards out, in about 30 feet of water,” Garfield told The Norwell Mariner newspaper. The next thing he saw, he said, was a shark that “came flying out of the water with something in its mouth. It was right in front of me, in the direction I was headed.”
Before the shark disappeared, Garfield snapped a photo of the possible Great White’s dorsal fin cutting through the water.
Garfield, who said he thought the shark was a Great White, estimated its length at between 12 and 15 feet. He also said that he thought the object in the shark’s mouth was a seal.
The Scituate Harbormaster’s office was quick to point out that it had not been able to confirm that the shark was a Great White.
A Great White shark attacked two women who were kayaking off of the Plymouth coastline Wednesday evening, taking a bite out of one of the boats. By the size and type of the bite marks, experts were able to confirm the women’s belief that the shark was a Great White.
The two women were tossed into the water with the shark and badly shaken up but, fortunately, unharmed in the attack.
Garfield said that he never felt threatened by the shark, which was “too busy eating” its captured prey a few feet below the surface of the water. Though he saw the shark look directly at him, the deadly fish showed no interest in an attack on his boat.
A Boston University marine biologist, Rick Murray, who resides in Scituate, said the pair of shark sightings did not surprise him.
“There are seals here, and there are sharks here,” Murray told The Hingham Journal newspaper. “The waters are warming, and they need massive amounts of calories a day. We are starting to see more and more seals.”
Murray said he believed that the shark sighted off of Scituate Thursday was the same shark that attacked the kayaks Wednesday. If there was more than one shark in the local waters, there would have been more shark sightings, he said.
