Sharks have been spotted up and down the coast of Massachusetts over the last few days, including a group of great whites who were filmed feasting on a whale carcass about six miles off the coast of Scituate.
People have reported both great white and basking shark sightings on the north and south shores in recent days – two species that Cape Cod shark biologist Greg Skomal said are commonly confused.
“First and foremost, the basking shark is a completely harmless shark,” Skomal said. “The coloration is very different… Their dorsal fin -- the fin on top of their body -- also tends to be a little bit floppier than a white shark.”
Frank and Mike Pitten, a father and son who summer in Scituate, went looking for the humpback whale carcass that’s been floating around Cape Cod Bay for the last few days. They came across around a half a dozen great white sharks feasting on it Monday morning. The sharks were unfazed by their 29-foot boat, according to the Pittens. Mike hung over the edge of the bow to get it all on video.
“I looked at Michael and I was like you know this is kind of a once-in-a-lifetime thing,” Frank said. “And you know my wife’s looking at me like I’m crazy because there’s storms running through.”
They watched as a group of four or five 10-foot great whites circled the dead whale for about an hour before they disappeared. The Pittens were about to leave when all of a sudden, the big shark showed up.
“When I saw this thing come under me, I was shocked,” Mike Pitten told NBC10 Boston.
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“I never dreamed that there would be one that big 6 miles from Scituate,” Frank Pitten, said.
“The shark that we saw I would guess is 20 feet give or take,” Mike Pitten continued. “And the most shocking part about it was the girth of the thing. You could probably fit most of the sharks that we saw inside of that shark.”
Meanwhile, Vinnie Patsios and PJ Furman recorded video of a 30 to 40-foot basking shark off of Plum Island in Newbury over the weekend.
“I saw it right next to me maybe like two feet off the boat literally its pectoral fin was probably under the boat,” said Patsios, owner of adLast LLC Marketing.
“It was very very close.”
“I’ve never seen anything like that before but it was shark week and we were just ready for it,” said Furman, who works for the Newburyport Water Department. “It was just amazing seeing it just the pure like majesticness of this big shark in the water it was awesome. It was really cool.”
They say it’s a sight they’ll never forget.
“We both came in and said that might have been the coolest thing we’ve ever seen,” Frank Pitten said.
“Even 10-15 minutes after we got in I was like did we really just see that or is that a dream because it seems like something you only see on Shark Week,” Mike Pitten said.
