Nantucket beachgoers acquired a front-row seat to a terrific white shark devouring a seal near shore over the weekend, as swimmers have been informed to get out of the water.
Blood was noticed within the water off Nice Level whereas the shark feasted on the seal. A number of shark sightings have been reported on Sunday off Nice Level, which is situated on the northern tip of Nantucket.
“Out of an abundance of caution, we closed down swimming Sunday afternoon,” a spokesperson for The Trustees of Reservations, a conservation and preservation group, stated in a press release.
“While shark attacks are rare, we advise visitors to please obey beach closures following shark sightings,” the Trustees spokesperson added. “If the beach is open for swimming, beachgoers should never swim near seals, never swim alone, limit their splashing, and avoid murky or low-visibility water.”
The seashores have been by no means closed, as swimmers have been requested to go away the water for an hour or two.
Final July, sharks have been seen thrashing within the water off of Nice Level Nantucket Island, whereas the apex predators ate prey.
Because of these shark predation occasions, a short lived swimming ban was put in place at Nice Level final July.
Seals are the main prey species for the good white shark. Because the seal inhabitants has exploded across the area, the good white shark has change into extra quite a few.
The Atlantic White Shark Conservancy’s Sharktivity app, which information shark sightings across the area, contains the Nice Level seal predation occasion from Sunday.
One other current shark sighting on the Sharktivity app was a lifeless seal discovered with a shark chew wound in Truro’s Pamet Harbor alongside the inside Cape.
Additionally, the Dolphin Fleet Whale Watch on Monday reported seeing a thresher shark, which was an “incredible and RARE sighting.”
“Thresher sharks are shy and considered harmless to humans, but if you’re a small schooling fish, watch out!” the Dolphin Fleet Whale Watch posted. “Threshers wield their long tail fins like underwater whips to stun fish such as herring, mackerel, and sand lance.”
In the meantime, as this week is “Shark Week,” native shark skilled Greg Skomal in a Museum of Science video recalled “probably the most frightening 30 seconds of my life” when he was diving and had a detailed name with a shark.
Initially, Skomal and researchers acquired a report of an 18-foot shark feeding on a whale carcass. Skomal positioned a tag on “Curly,” the primary mature feminine white shark that he had ever tagged within the Atlantic.
“I was extremely excited, and I also wanted to go diving with her,” Skomal stated.
He spent about an hour within the water together with her earlier than Curly acquired wrapped up within the diving cage.
“She proceeded to break the cage apart, while I was in it,” Skomal stated. “She freed herself, we got out of the cage, we were perfectly fine, but it gave me such a tremendous respect for this animal. And I felt bad because we had kind of interrupted her meal.”
Months later, researchers realized loads from her tag.
