Andrea Medeiros
amedeiros@abc6.com
Update: All of the beaches have been reopened to swimming. There will be boat patrols to watch for any other sharks.
A Great White Shark washed up on our shores, around 7:30 Friday night, banning hundreds from swimming on Saturday.
That shark was 13 feet long and 16–hundred pounds and was found dead on the coast of Goose Wing beach in Westport.
We know it's a young, male Great White Shark and experts are trying to figure out why it died. But one thing's for sure, there wasn't a shortage of excitement as folks got a glance at Westport's very own Jaws.
It looked like a typical Labor Day weekend of fun in the sun at Little Compton's South Shore Beach. There was only one problem, no one was allowed in the water.
Experts were trying to figure out what a 13 foot long shark was doing in the waters.
"I was really scared at first, but it's really not that scary," said one young onlooker.
"I think it's very scary because I surf right down there," said another little boy.
It may have looked pretty cool for the hundreds of people stopping in to snap photos and just get a glance of this 16–hundred pounder, but skeptics were left wondering how'd he get there and more importantly, where are his friends.
"Well, we know Great White Sharks occur in New England every year," said Greg Skomal of the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, "So certainly there are probably more out there. There are several white sharks in these waters and we've been watching them for several years."
But beach-goers have never seen anything like this before, even Barbara Truesdale who's family has owned land on the beach since the 1920's. She's shocked by shark surprise.
"I've never seen a white shark, that's why we all came running over here," said Truesdale, "We were all very excited because we thought it was uncommon, and it isn't."
Shark experts dissected the Great White right on the beach Saturday afternoon. It took them two hours. They're trying to learn more about the shark and why he died.
