A shark that washed up on the beach of Nantucket off Cape Cod Monday may not seem like a big deal, but it's the first Great White to wash ashore there in 21 years.
“John Chisholm, a biologist with the DMF, traveled to Nantucket today to retrieve the shark and is transporting it back to the mainland where it will be dissected for further study and to determine a cause of death. ‘It's not everyday we get a chance to study one up close,' Capone said. ‘This confirms what we've been saying, that white sharks are not common, but not unheard of in the waters off Massachusetts.' The shark washed up on a beach off Sheep Pond Road Monday, and after it was discovered by several children on the beach, DPW workers along with an ATV police officer towed the shark off the sand and into a front-end loader parked on Sheep Pond Road.”
Last week, a man on nearby Martha's Vineyard claimed “he had seen two sharks about 22 feet long and 3,000 pounds each while he was working on a fishing boat” near a public beach. That story turned out to be a hoax and the man has been charged with disorderly conduct.