The water was only a few feet deep. Then it turned red.
A startling video from Great Point on Nantucket captures a great white shark attacking a seal virtually in the shorebreak, transforming otherwise gray-green shallows into a bloody feeding zone.
Carrie Drayton and Tyler O’Brien were driving toward Great Point to fish Sunday when they noticed something thrashing near the wash-over at the Coskata-Coatue Wildlife Refuge. Within moments, the water around it became a swirling red cloud. They stopped, and O’Brien began filming as the shark tore into the seal just feet from dry sand.
It was a full-blown bloodbath in ankle-to-waist-deep-looking water — and another reminder that Nantucket has become prime great white territory.
The reason is food.
The Atlantic White Shark Conservancy says white shark abundance around Cape Cod has increased over the past decade “primarily in response to the local population recovery of gray seals,” one of the species’ favorite prey items.
And Nantucket has been especially sharky this year. In June, fisherman Elliot Sudal unexpectedly hooked an estimated 8½- to 9-foot great white from the island’s south shore. “Everything has been showing up earlier the last few years,” Sudal said, noting that even with water temperatures still in the 50s, sharks had already arrived.
Related: Shark Washes Up on Washington Beach—Then Its Head Disappears (Video)
Massachusetts officials later tightened restrictions on shore-based shark fishing around Nantucket after several incidents involving anglers targeting whites close to swimmers and surfers. State officials called the practice an “acute public safety risk.”
The broader Northeast has also seen unusual shark activity. In August, Maine lifeguard Greg Wilfert said a shark grabbed his rescue buoy and dragged him about five feet underwater before he escaped. Marine resources officer Daryen Granata said at least a dozen sharks had recently been spotted near popular beaches — “a large volume, larger than I’ve seen” in more than 30 years.
For Nantucket, however, the equation is simple: seals bring sharks.
And sometimes the hunt unfolds practically on the beach.
Related: ‘Kill the Shark’: WA Issues Rare Order After Fatal Great White Attack
Original Post from this site