Cue up the cellos. A big-ass great white shark washed ashore between Rhode Island and Massachusetts, right near beaches were New Englanders frolic in the way-too-chilly surf. It was found not very far at all from where they shot the water scenes for the movie Jaws, an obscure little film about a big-ass great white shark eating people like they were delightfully less scaly herring — I am sure you’ve never heard of it; too art-house for most people I guess.
This is after a great white shark investigated a kayak in case it contained snack food off Nauset beach, which is on Cape Cod just up the coast from where the dead shark was found and is just like the fictional beach in Jaws. There have been more shark sightings, and it has prompted officials to close some of the beaches in the area, lest people get eaten on their watch.
In Chatham, which is the northern part of Nauset beach, a family got some nice video of a great white eating a seal.
Apparently seals have come back into the area, definitely because people haven’t been able to hunt them since 1972 and their population is recovering but possibly also because the water is not as cold thanks to global warming. Where there are seals there will be great white sharks, the primary predator of the pretty pinnipeds. That means if Sammy the Seal is swimming off your beach, the odds are very good that so is Sally the Shark.
Sharks absolutely terrify me. They have for as long as I can remember, even before the the movie Jaws hit theaters (yes, I’m that old). Thinking about them puckers my butt and makes me want to wee. So of course I am glued to Shark Week every year and read all the accounts of shark attacks.
Anyway, summer is “officially” over so the beaches are going to be less crowded now. It will be mostly just sharks and seals and fishy fish in the waters off Cape Cod from now until next June, when the cellos will begin to play once more.
Ba-dum.
I like to watch horror/thriller movies about giant killer sharks, or prehistoric sharks, etc. I’m that weird. And I love the MythBusters Shark Week specials!
Have you seen *whispers in shame* Sharktopus?
Sharks are scary. It irritates me when people speak as if they are malicious, though. They aren’t malicious. It is just their nature to check things out by taking them into their mouths. Also, human beings are saltier than a sharks preferred food.
“It is just their nature to check things out by taking them into their mouths.” Like large toddlers. With very sharp teeth!