Whale watchers off the coast of Massachusetts witnessed a great white shark help itself to a seal Saturday.
A Cape Cod-based whale watching company, Dolphin Fleet Whale Watching, posted footage on its Facebook page of what is believed to be a more than 12-foot shark chomping down on a juvenile gray seal. The post noted that the shark sunk its teeth into remnants of the seal for approximately 7 minutes after issuing a fatal blow. (RELATED: Video Shows Dog Leap Into Water To Go After Massive Shark)
The post characterized the weekend sighting as a first for the company. “While we have a healthy population of great whites and seals on Cape Cod, predation events like this are not often sighted. This is the first time our crew has seen a predation in all of our collective years on the water!” the post stated. (RELATED: Video Shows Decapitated Fish Head Still Wriggling, Destroys A Can Of Beer)
The company said that it shared the video with local oceanographic shark researchers, who confirmed the clip captured a great white.
The rare and graphic encounter marked the first official shark sighting of the season off Cape Cod’s coast, Boston 25 News reported.
A whale watch group spotted a great white shark devouring a seal in the water off Cape Cod over the weekend, marking the first official sighting of the season. https://t.co/bPpOvreUnE
— Boston 25 News (@boston25) May 22, 2023
Great white sharks begin to migrate to the New England shoreline as the Atlantic Ocean warms up seasonally. When temperatures cool in fall, the species swims to the southeastern parts of the United States, as well as the Gulf of Mexico.