{"id":206309,"date":"2025-09-07T00:31:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-07T00:31:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/206309\/"},"modified":"2025-09-07T00:31:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-07T00:31:09","slug":"never-seen-anything-like-this","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/206309\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Never seen anything like this’"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s what sharks dream of: A massive easy meal<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Lucky sharks were recently spotted chowing down on a basking shark\u2019s liver off the North Shore, according to a local whale watch.<\/p>\n

The 7 Seas Whale Watch out of Gloucester came across the feast on Wednesday. The mesmerized whale watchers got a front-row seat to blue sharks feeding on the giant liver of a basking shark.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was so cool,\u201d 7 Seas Whale Watch lead naturalist Amanda Johnston told the Herald. \u201cIt\u2019s something you might see in National Geographic, but we\u2019ve never seen anything like this out here.\u201d<\/p>\n

The boat was in Jeffreys Ledge, about 33 miles north of Gloucester, when they received a report from another boat that there was some large piece of fat or carcass floating at the surface. The whale watch then found the shark\u2019s liver with a bunch of birds around.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was pretty incredible,\u201d the 7 Seas Whale Watch<\/a> posted. \u201cI could have watched this all day!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026 There were chunks of it (the basking shark) spread out for miles,\u201d the whale watch added. \u201cIt may have just died of natural causes and has been torn apart by sharks over time. But exactly how it died I guess we\u2019ll never know.\u201d<\/p>\n

Blue sharks are known to scavenge on basking shark carcasses, according to John Chisholm, an adjunct scientist at the New England Aquarium.<\/p>\n

For instance, Captain John Boats out of Plymouth during a whale watch last August came across a dead basking shark that was being scavenged by five to six blue sharks.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was an incredible sight,\u201d Captain John Boats posted<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Basking sharks are the second largest fish in the world. The typical basking shark that local whale watches see are about 20 to 25 feet long, weighing several tons.<\/p>\n

7 Seas Whale Watch has been seeing quite a few blue sharks in recent weeks.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile on the South Shore this week, an injured seal with a shark bite washed up on a Duxbury beach. The Whale and Dolphin Conservation rescue team received a call about an injured male yearling harbor seal.<\/p>\n

\"AnAn injured seal with a shark bite washed up on a Duxbury beach this week. (Whale and Dolphin Conservation photo)<\/p>\n

\u201cWe quickly made our way to the beach and after assessing the seal\u2019s injuries and discussing options with our veterinarians and rehabilitation facilities, we made the decision to collect him in hopes that he could have a second chance in rehab,\u201d Whale and Dolphin Conservation posted.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately, after a full examination, we discovered that these injuries, severe tissue damage and bone fractures from a shark interaction, were too extensive for treatment,\u201d WDC added. \u201cWe made the tough, but humane choice to euthanize him.\u00a0Euthanasia is not a decision that we take lightly. We gather as much information as possible and work directly with highly skilled and trained marine mammal veterinarians to make the best decision for the welfare of the animal.\u201d<\/p>\n

While there\u2019s an uptick of great white shark activity this time of year, researchers also receive many reports of ocean sunfish, also known as Mola molas.<\/p>\n

\u201cIs it a white shark fin, or another animal? As we start to see more reports of Mola Molas (ocean sunfish) along the coastline, they can be misidentified as white sharks,\u201d the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy posted.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs they sun themselves, their dorsal fin will flap in and out of the water,\u201d AWSC added. \u201cBUT Mola Molas are not the only animal that can be mistaken for a white shark. Seals will often bobble at the surface, stretching their head up, and can be mistaken for a white shark fin from far away.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s what sharks dream of: A massive easy meal. Lucky sharks were recently spotted chowing down on a…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":206310,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[113487,113488,4291,113489,4334,3809,2739,159,42504,11539,11486,2415,67,132,68,113490,837],"class_list":{"0":"post-206309","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-basking-shark","9":"tag-blue-shark","10":"tag-cape-cod","11":"tag-duxbury","12":"tag-gloucester","13":"tag-great-white-sharks","14":"tag-massachusetts","15":"tag-science","16":"tag-seals","17":"tag-shark","18":"tag-shark-bite","19":"tag-sharks","20":"tag-united-states","21":"tag-unitedstates","22":"tag-us","23":"tag-whale-watch","24":"tag-wildlife"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206309"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206309\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/206310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}