The juvenile basking shark washed up in the surf on Menemsha Beach Sunday, attracting onlookers. Later scientists arrived to perform a necropsy that will contribute to shark research as a whole.
“Open wide and say ahh!” This is one fish that would be a dentist’s dream. It wasn’t a dentist who found a dead basking shark at Menemsha Beach last weekend.
A dead shark turned up in the surf at Menemsha Beach Sunday afternoon, attracting a small crowd of gawkers. Word about the shark first surfaced when Menemsha Texaco sent out a picture via Instagram.
Off the coast of Chatham, a team of nearly 20 expert fishermen and scientists from around the country is ready. For the past 30 days they have lived and fished aboard the M/V OCEARCH in hopes of capturing, examining and tagging live white sharks.
The send-off felt a little like the dawn of a new adventure, a trip to uncharted territory — a discoverer’s voyage to the new world or the Wild West. And the subject of the voyage is almost as mysterious and misunderstood, its public perception more determined by stereotypes.
On Saturday, July 27, the film Sharkwater screens at 8 p.m. at the Katherine Cornell Theatre in Vineyard Haven. The documentary directed by Rob Stewart, aims to debunk stereotypes of sharks as vicious killers of the sea. Mr. Stewart’s film travels the oceans of the world exploring the lives of sharks, the people seeking to protect them and others who try to exploit and kill them, including shark poachers in Guatemala and marine reserves in Costa Rica and the Galapagos Islands.
On the surface it seems like a simple and straightforward equation: more seals equals more great white sharks. The connection, however, is likely far more complicated.
Oak Bluffs voted in favor of catch-and-release shark tournaments, West Tisbury approved a new police station and Edgartown approved two spending projects during annual town elections last week.
Voter turnout was sparse, between nine and 13 per cent, and few races were contested.
Oak Bluffs voters approved a nonbinding referendum that would make shark tournaments in town catch and release only by a margin of 225 to 186.
The annual Oak Bluffs Monster Shark Tournament, which offers prizes for the largest shark caught, is held at the Oak Bluffs harbor every summer.
