Great White??? off Cape Cod

[StrikeThree]

Hi - As some of you may have heard, a 14' Great White was reported to have "attacked" (yeah right) a small charter off the coast of Cape Cod. Its caused quite a stir around these parts. Here are some pics taken by a person on the boat - Im no expert, but does anyone think this looks like a Great White?? Im thinking Mako?? I figured there would be as many knowledgeable opinions here as anywhere. If you think it is a Great White, who wants to go out with me and bag that sucker! Photos are from www.boston.com

Brian

 

[gazpep]

No, I think it's a dolphin.

Funny thing, theres a news story down here of a fellow in South Australia who found a dead Right Whale floating off the coast yesterday and mounted its back and theres video footage of him cutting out it's jawbone with a chainsaw while in the background 3 huge Great Whites are biting great chunks of whale meat with their heads sticking out of the water. This bloke is balancing himself with the chainsaw only a matter of a couple of feet from the feeding Great Whites. One of the sharks is then seen alongside the boat and they estimate it at 18 foot long with a girth of over 4 feet. One mother of a shark...that bloke is crazy even thinking of getting near it.

 

[Rob Klein]

dolphin

 

[StrikeThree]

I have to admit it does look like a dolphin in all but the last picture - head looks a little too wide, but that could be optical distortion from the water. Anyone else ? I may email the Boston Globe reporter who wrote the article to check out this thread. That would be a great headline "Great White or Flipper???"

 

[humu]

just last month there was a greatwhite sighting on oahu. a spear fisherman saw it off the wainae coast and said it was 15'.
that's just great. I already worry about tigers when I go surfing, but now a whitie!?
how did it get to hawaii anyway? my guess is that it followed a fishing boat or dolphins.

 

[Rick O]

My first thought was dolphin too, but the dorsal fin in the first photo doesn't look like a dolphin.. I've had them come after fish I've caught.

I don't think there is enough shown to determine exactly what kind it is. Probably the media is blowing this out of proportion for sensationalism.

Rick

 

[jaydse]

being from PA. my ocean is a swimming pool but i thought dolphin./ has anybody heard about dolphins attacking people? on the new i heard? picture #3 looks like a shark hmmm ?

 

[Anonymous]

From those pictures it would be impossible to get a positive ID on this because of the distortion of the water no matter how much I play with Photoshop.
It could be of many various genus of sharks from Negraprion, Carcharhinus, Negaprion or Isurus, etc. Without seeing a pic of the belly, snout and detailed finnage I seriously doubt this is a Carcharodon carcharias.

Regards,
David Mohr

 

[Anonymous]

Atlantic bottlenose dolphines are aggresive and have attacked people in the wild and keepers in captivity.

Great white sharks are found in every area of the ocean but follow thier main prey seals and sea lions who stay in cold water. Great Whites have adapted very well to other food sources and have been caught off Florida. Large Bulls and and Large Tigers are a much greater threat to man than Great Whites. The movie Jaws has forever given Great Whites a very underserved reputation. Every year people are killed by Large Bulls and Tigers. When was the last time you actually know of a Great White killing a man?

 

[gazpep]

There have been at least 2 witnessed Great White attacks on surfers in South Australian and Western Australian waters in the past year. Both were fatalities. Also another couple of highly suspect disappearances where divers never returned from areas known to be frequented by Great Whites. Abalone divers are a known high risk group in areas close to fur seal colonies which are natural prey for Whites.

 

[Anonymous]

I left that very unclear. I do not doubt hat Great Whites pose a danger and Attacks happen. Most are a case of mistaken identity whereas Bulls and Tigers actually prey upon people.

I surf and dive and as bad as it is, nothing gets all the people out of the water quicker than a good ankle biter. I do not wish an attack on anyone though.

 

[SPC]

Flipper

Steve

 

[The Bluedevil]

Looks like a dolphin to me too! I thought that even before i read everyone's reply!

 

[gazpep]

I'd love to be able to show you guys the video of the "fool on the whale"....it's so unreal that I think the US TV networks will hear about it and pick it up. I mean can you imagine being perched on the slippery back of a whale balancing a chainsaw while 3 large examples of the greatest predator on earth are in a feeding frenzy a couple of feet away ?. And he's completely calm ripping away at the whales jawbone. I've never seen anything remotely as dangerous.

 

[Anonymous]

Originally posted by gazpep:
I'd love to be able to show you guys the video of the "fool on the whale"....it's so unreal that I think the US TV networks will hear about it and pick it up. I mean can you imagine being perched on the slippery back of a whale balancing a chainsaw while 3 large examples of the greatest predator on earth are in a feeding frenzy a couple of feet away ?. And he's completely calm ripping away at the whales jawbone. I've never seen anything remotely as dangerous.

Well actually tonight on the ABC TV Network they showed a group of tourists on a boat ( shark watching ) trying to tap sharks on the nose while their tour guides were enticing the sharks into a feeding frenzy by dumping Chub off the boat.
I'm sorry, but I don't feel sorry for the tourists.

Regards,
David Mohr

 

[jamesw]

Am I the only one that thinks that FISH has a vertical tail?

It could be a white, mako (unlikely), or porbeagle shark, IMO. Probably the latter.

Cheers
James

 

[StrikeThree]

Ok. The more I look at the first picture, the more I think that looks like a dolphin on its side (would explain the vertical tail thing). The others are too distorted to really tell (not that the first one is crystal clear). So I am changing my official guess to an Icthyosaur, Stenopterygius. This would be like our own little Loch Ness Monster...

Brian

 

[WindWalker]

Look again at the top picture. It took someone else pointing this out before I could see it.
At the top of the picture is the shark belly. (The light section)
It is arched, on it's side, it is a pec not it's dorsal fin that is out of the water.
It is arching as it made a pass at the striped bass.

 

[Anonymous]

If its on its side, then the tail is horizontal, correct? I think dolphin.

 

[kazzoo]

Dolphin. Top picture is of the animal turned to the side, so the horizontal tail is turned vertical. Also, in the same picture, look at the head, that is the definate shape of a dolphin head.