Beachgoers on Nantucket were in for a surprise Friday afternoon after they came across what they thought was a beached whale. After closer inspection, the group realized it was no whale — but a great white shark alive and floundering in the surf.
Liza Phillips of California told the Nantucket Current, which first reported the story, that she was walking along Low Beach in Sconset with family and friends when they came upon the struggling creature.
“It was so helpless; we were thinking it was going to get back in itself, but it was completely beached,” Phillips told the Current. “We said we have to step up and try to help. Definitely, there was some adrenaline involved. One of our guests took off his shirt to go in, and I said I’m going too.”
Phillips and her friend got into the water and pushed the shark to help it get to deeper depths. As seen in a video, the shark eventually could swim away.
It was indeed a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
“Touching a great white? That’s not even something you put on a bucket list because it’s just so unbelievable,” Phillips told the Current.
According to the Current, Phillips and her family live in California but own a home in Sconset.
Greg Skomal, a shark biologist with the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, confirmed it was a great white shark.
“It is important to be careful when handling sharks in the surf,” Skomal wrote in an email to Boston.com. “I have no problem with what these folks did to save the animal.”
John Chisholm, a shark expert with the New England Aquarium, warned that handling a live shark, especially when it is stranded and struggling, is a risk.
“Most people know to avoid the business end, the mouth, but may not be aware that shark skin is very rough and being slapped by a thrashing tail can also do damage,” Chisholm wrote in an email to Boston.com.
Despite the warning, he said these beachgoers did a “great job” getting the female white shark back in the water. They were cautious and stayed behind the shark as they nudged it back into deeper water.
It’s unclear what caused the shark to strand, but it was able to swim away, Chisholm wrote. The shark did not have a tag, but the videos and photos will help researchers identify the shark in the future from its natural markings.
“Although this case had a positive outcome, I can’t stress enough it was a dangerous situation,” Chisholm wrote.
In the future, Chisholm encourages anyone who runs across a beached shark to contact local authorities or the New England Aquarium at [email protected] or @MA_Sharks on social media.
Boston.com could not reach Phillips for further comment on Monday.
It wasn’t the first time sharks were spotted off the shores of Nantucket this summer. In one instance, a dusky shark was seen eating a seal, and another was a dead tiger shark.
