Some beachgoers found themselves part of a rescue mission to save the life of one of the ocean's greatest predators.
A young male great white shark founds itself stuck on the shore of Chatham's South Beach, Massachusetts. Though great white sharks are fairly common along Cape Cod during the summer season, this particular 7½-foot great white surprisingly ended up on the beach and was struggling to breathe.
At 1:30 p.m. on Monday, Chatham harbormaster Stuart Smith arrived at the beach in response to a call to help the distressed animal. When Stuart arrived he saw several people pouring buckets of water on the shark's body to keep him breathing.
"The people looked like a bucket brigade putting out a fire," Smith said.
Stuart called in Greg Skomal, a biologist from the state's Division of Marine Fisheries to assist in the rescue of the young shark. The two, along with their colleagues, urgently worked to get the shark back into the water by tying a rope around the shark's body for them to be able to tow the animal into the water with a patrol boat. The team succeeded in safely submerging the shark's body into the water but held the tail to keep the animal steady.
While the shark was regaining strength, Greg placed an acoustic tag on the shark, which will allow researchers to track its movements as long as it remains near the Cape Cod area.
As the shark showed progress in regaining the strength to swim on its own, the team continued to assist the animal by holding its body steady as they towed it a mile out into deeper water before letting it free.
The rescue operation ended at about 5 p.m. but the lives of the people present at the beach will never be the same as this is a rare chance to see a great predator up close.
"When that shark started swimming, they saw it and started clapping on the shoreline," Greg said.
The efforts of the team were commendable but even Stuart attests that the actions of the people on the beach that day made a big difference in saving a young shark's life.
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