Multiple great white sharks seen feeding on whale carcass off Massachusetts beach spark panic among swimmers
CAPE COD BAY, MASSACHUSETTS: Officials in Massachusetts had to shut down a beach after multiple great white sharks were spotted feeding on the carcass of a whale just off the coast.
Grant Suchecki, 17, of Kingston, managed to capture a video of the spectacular event after he and his friend, who were in a boat in the ocean making their way to Cape Cod, received a text about what was transpiring, according to the Daily Mail.
Suchecki and his friend quickly made their way to the location, which was just off the coast of Duxbury Beach, and they couldn't believe their eyes.
When they arrived, roughly 10 minutes after receiving the text, they thought that they were too late. But as Suchecki began filming with his cell phone, a great white shark emerged from the depths and chomped into the whale carcass.
"I've caught smaller sharks before, but I've never seen anything like it," Suchecki said. "It's not very often you get to see a great white shark."
In the video, which he uploaded on his Twitter page, the great white can be seen aggressively taking big bites out of the carcass as onlookers on a nearby boat gasp in excitement at the rare sight.
Officials revealed that as many as four sharks were seen feeding on the carcass, which was identified as belonging to a Minke whale—which can grow up to 26 ft in length—that afternoon.
The great white shark, which is responsible for the largest number of reported and identified fatal unprovoked shark attacks on humans, can grow up to 20 ft in length and 4,200 lbs in weight.
Suchecki estimated that the shark he saw off the Duxbury Beach coast was around 10 to 12-feet-long -- the average size of a male great white -- but that coastal Massachusetts residents had gotten used to dealing with such sights.
"We know that they are here and we get warnings that the beaches are closed, but few people actually get to see them," he said. "We were just in the right place at the right time."
Duxbury Police Beach Operations confirmed they had to close the beach because of the incident.
"Due to the beaching of a dead whale, which is attracting numerous sharks, authorities have closed the beach for swimming until arrangements can be made to remove the whale carcass," they wrote on Twitter.
They removed the carcass on Monday, September 1, and said the beach was open for swimming "at your own risk."