VIDEO: Just A Huge Great White Snacking On A 35 ft. Whale

Onthewater.com – F/V Skipjack set out from Falmouth Harbor last weekend to fish Veatch Canyon in a confused forecast. On The Water photographer Matt Rissell, offshore columnist Jon Pilcher, Brian Cota and Jackson Parmenter made up the crew along with Captain Larry Backman.

Hearing of a drifting dead whale, the crew decided to start trolling 5 miles south of its location and to work their way to the whale to see what sort of life it had attracted. With a combined total of nearly 1,000 offshore New England trips among them, the crew had hopes of encountering a shark or two near the carcass.

Trolling north amidst sporadic breaking bluefin, Larry spotted the whale in the distance, ordered lines in and idled the boat up to a very dead and decomposing 35 foot adult right whale. Circling it from 30 feet away, they saw a blue shark underneath it and massive bite marks above the waterline of the whale. As they turned the corner around the head of the whale they noticed a large shark tail move away. Stopping by the whale, Jon saw 2 or three big sharks deep in the water. On the 3rd circle around the whale, she came.

“Oh my goodness – it’s a great white!”

The massive shark, easily the width of the boat, circled us curiously as the entire crew watched in awe of its size and grace.

While the length was impressive; the girth was unbelievable and the back of the shark was the size of a 4-by-8! It showed no fear of the boat, watching us as we watched it. Like a dog marking its spot, the shark moved in to the whale, powered its head clear of the water and took a number of massive bites, each one leaving a 4 foot wide circle on the dead whale. As if it was showing off, the shark rolled onto its side, letting us see its white belly and the underside of its pectoral fins. Its span was easily 8 feet wide!

Every week with the sharks! We can’t be far off from the first attack, I can feel it in the air. This thing was casually biting 4 foot chunks out of a whale? Oh, no biggie, just a mosquito bite.

How many of these killing machines do humans need to flirt with on a regular basis before we start installing shark nets? A nice big circle around the entire Cape should do just fine. Maybe we could keep the seaweed out while we are at it. How about a giant cement wall? Let’s turn Cape Cod waters into a giant wave pool, maybe throw a few water slides in here and there.

At least then we don’t have to worry about Cape Wind’s impact on sea life. The windmills will be in a giant water park. The worst that could happen is that maybe a bunch of fat people from Wareham congregate on the bases of them creating big ghetto human/seal islands.