Great White??? off Cape Cod

[Anonymous]

For what it's worth, the pics were taken from a 20 foot powerboat on a fishing expedition. The boat was captained by a veteran fishing guide. He claims to know the difference between makos and great whites. He claimed this was a great white.
Later the same day a large mako was caught in a "monster shark" fishing tournament in roughly the same area.
The aforementioned captain claimed it was not a mako that stole the striped bass. He said he knew a great white because of its "broad shoulders"
Another point; the captain and his clients claimed the "great white" was 18 feet, just a bit smaller than the boat they were standing on. Would a dolphin be that big? I don't know how large dolphins get.

 

[cindywennin]

Dolphin—IMO the first picture the snout area is too long and narrow for a GW shark and in the last picture the pectoral fins aren't long enough for a GW either.

Disclaimer: I wasn't there...can't say for sure

Cindy

 

[Baalz]

i dont spend my living out in the sea like this Captain does. Im taking his word for it. Theres no doubt in my mind that bottom picture is a shark. And at the angle it was taken I think it could be a Great White.
I didnt take top picture so I could no way guesstimate what angle this fish really is at

Is it me or does this great white have a pointed nose? http://www.greatwhite.org/hi_res2.htm

Look again at bottom pic on this thread.. his head is massive and tip is pointed just like this pic

[ July 25, 2001: Message edited by: Baalz ]

 

[ophiuroid]

I have to agree with Kazzoo...that first picture most definitely looks like the profile of a dolphin. The last one doesn't look like a great white- which does have a somewhat pointy nose, but not that thin and tapered. Seems to me in the great white the eyes are right close to the nose and then it abruptly comes to a point- not like in the "shark" above.

Picture from fabulous site (more pictures there): http://greatwhite.org/frame_images.htm

The animal also seems to have small fins compared to a Great White....

Dolphin image from: http://www.naturezoo.com/marinemammals/bottlenosedolphin.html

Also, if that "shark" is supposedly 18ft long, according to the captain, than how big is that baitfish?

Possible it is a Mako or something, but the head still doesn't seem quite right.

Image from site: http://www.sdnhm.org/kids/sharks/shore-to-sea/mako.html

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Brittlestars!! http://home.att.net/~ophiuroid
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[Anonymous]

That baitfish is supposed to be a striped bass (although it looks like a small cod). Legal limit for stripers is 26" I think. We have no way of knowing how big that one is, but let us assume it is 36" (3 feet) long. Would that scale put the "shark" at 18 feet? Is the shark 6 times larger than the bait? Could be, I guess. What do you folks think?

 

[JohnD]

That first picture gets my vote for "Flipper". The following photographs are not so clear for a good, positive identification.

Baalz - great link. I will have to check out out more.

 

[chris s1]

small cod? arnt cod like 1-2 feet and really thin? at least the ones i go fishing for in gloucster are...

that could be a big striped bass, my buddy pulled in a 35lbs striped bass and it was about 2 and a half to 3 feet long.

i think it is a shark for sure, i have never seen a dolphin thats over like 15 feet long hehe.

 

[pupeluv]

In the top picture, the animal's tail fin is horizontal. Only dolphins and whales have that. The way water can distort the features, i don't think you can make a determination based on the head alone in the last pic. A horizontal tail fin is the determining factor here. I hope nobody paid this captain too much money to see a "shark".

 

[Schooner]

Does anyone have a link to a pic on the web of that crazy Australian on the whale with the sharks in the background?

 

[Len]

Well, in my assessment, it's unlikely it's a shark - if the last picture is any indication. Although the picture is admittingly poor, what strikes me is that I see no eyes. This would tell me this animal's eyes are set very low and to the posterior of the head (on the same latitude as its mouth). This morphology is indicative of all dolphins, but very few sharks (eg blue shark).

 

[Cats_Eat_Fish]

Dolphin. Seems pretty obvious to me.

 

[kazzoo]

After looking at the pictures some more, I still say the first picture is a dolphin. The second two it is hard to say. The last one might be a shark. You can see what appear to be gill slits on the left side (as we see it in the picture) of the head, typical of a shark and not of a dolphin. The kind of shark, I don't know.

 

[Anonymous]

Look at the symmetrical caudal penduncle keel in the first photo, and what appears appears to be the slight protrusion from the animal's left pectoral fin. Also, not the complete lack of any sort of countershading and/or bicolor pigmentation. That is a dorsal view of this animal, and it is a shark.

 

[rBeOeBf]

Schooner, look here for the crazy Australian: http://www.thebostonchannel.com/sh/news/stories/nat-news-88642820010724-080717.html

 

[Jase]

Look at the third pic. Looks like a shark striking the bait...dorsal in top left, pectoral lower left. If it were a dolphin, I think you'd see more of a snout in this picture.
18 feet long though? Nah, look at the splash in the water...8-10 feet max.

 

[imow]

Take a look at the Australian video of the great white. Pay attention to right after they scan to the large boat with the people on the deck. You will see a shark swim past and turn towards a boat. In a few of these frames, the shark looks like a dolphin from above. I paused it but I cant get the pic over to here.
Take a look.

 

[kazzoo]

I still think that the top photo is a dolphin. Dolphins, at least the ones I have worked with, do not have the earlier refered to shading. They were more or less solid grey/blue. So one turned on its side in the conditions that are evident in that photo is going to be all gray. If you look closely at the head in that photo, you can make out the mouth and eye. The dorsal side of the dolphin is turned to the top in that picture, with the ventral side turned towards the bottom, bottom-left. The head shape is very hard to discount.

 

[Lefty1]

I gotta go with galleon and say it is some kind of shark. It looks to me like the tail in the first pic is vertical (you can see both pectoral fins coming out from under the body), I see no evidence of a mellon, the nose tapers to a point (the head looks like a big triangle), and the last tow pics look like a shark feeding. I don't think it is a white shark though.

RR