A woman was killed in an apparent shark attack on the coast of Maine. Makes me think of Pogies, thick as clouds of locusts?

[TomY]

As the Gulf of Maine warms up faster than 99% of the world's oceans, things change. In the last few seasons, we've watched huge schools of Mackeral replaced by literally clouds of Pogies (Menhadden) in our harbors.

This has been a sad turn for many as the Mackeral were caught on rod and reel in every harbor as the schools would return in July. Pogies are useless to fishermen as not only do they not hit jigs, the oily fish aren't popular like the Mackeral for table fare. Even as bait, Pogies are used only as Herring become scarce (now endangered, likely also moving due to warming waters).

Sitting on the boat last weekend in the outer harbor, we heard a roar from open water and saw the foam from some natural action on the surface. It happened a couple more times before we realized it was seals, below, driving schools of Pogies to the surface from deeper water.

The roar is the sound of the countless fish breaking the surface. The seals below are gorging themselves on the easy prey.

Great White sharks couldn't care less about Pogies, but they love fat seals.

Further, our warming water and high air temperatures have lured early swimmers up here. Great White sharks can swim from Cape Cod to Maine in a day. They are very good swimmers.

Shark attacks are rare, especially here (this is the only recorded fatality - if in fact it's proven).

Woman swimming off Harpswell killed by shark in 1st such Maine fatality

A 2nd woman who was swimming with the victim off Bailey Island on Monday was not injured, officials said.

www.pressherald.com

 

[Pirate Dave]

Pogies are useless to fishermen as not only do they not hit jigs, the oily fish aren't popular like the Mackeral for table fare. Even as bait,

Wrong, You can't eat them but we love to fish with them. Great bait. They have to be snagged with a treble hook

 

[shemandr]

I think the schools of Menhadden can be good -at least for Peconic Bay. They are filter feeders and cleanse the water of algae I’m told. Old timers say they were once so plentiful there, it was said you could walk across the bay on them. The water clarity was very good dispute the effluent of a million ducks emptying into the bays. The duck farms are largely gone, the Menhadden are down in numbers due to crazy overfishing and the water quality isn’t as good. We still get kills when Bluefish chase the poor buggers into a creek and there are so many densely packed they die of oxygen deprivation. A few years a whole school got caught in the Shinnicock Canal lock and an estimated 200,000 died. It was a stinking mess.
When we say Pogies we mean Porgies. You talk funny up there.

 

[Scott T-Bird]

We saw a video and an article just last week that featured sharks devouring an injured dolphin just a few feet off the beach on Long Beach Island (LBI, as they say here). It was raw nature for sure. You could see in the video the blood spreading in the water and the sharks thrashing, with people just feet away standing on shore. The scientists say that you are in danger if you go into the water to attempt to help a bleeding dolphin. Sharks are the clean-up crew of the ocean and they will be nearby. Later, the scientists tried to find some remains in hopes of identifying the shark species. They couldn't find a trace of anything left, except blood in the water.

 

[JamesG161]

Pogies make good cat food and bait on the Gulf.
Jim...

 

[Will Gilmore]

So sad to read about Julie Dimperio Holowach, the 63 year old woman who was killed. My heart goes out to her family and friends.
Shark in deadly Maine attack confirmed as great white; victim identified as 63-year-old seasonal resident - The Boston Globe
"Patrick Keliher, commissioner of the Maine Department of Marine Resources, said Massachusetts’ top expert on great white sharks had confirmed it was a great white shark attack with the help of a fragment of a tooth the shark left behind."

As a kid living on a sailboat, I use to read everything I could find about sharks. At the time, there had never been a female victim. They tend to single their prey out, once they've attacked, and ignore the other people trying to help until their victim is inaccessible, then they pick a new target.

I read an account of a sailor who survived the USS Indianapolis. That account was used, almost word for word, by Benchley in Jaws.

-Will (Dragonfly)

 

[All U Get]

So sad and unfortunate.

 

[capta]

Shades of Jaws...

 

[Maine Sail]

A good friend of mine just took these photos 4162 feet from our house, just across the bay at Madeline Point on Cousins Island. A little uncomfortable seeing as my daughter is in a junior sailing program just South of Sturdivant Island. I believe they are in 420's today but they flip them all the time..... There have been a ton of chomped on seals showing up all over Casco Bay.

"We're gonna need a bigger boat."....

 

[Will Gilmore]

Sailing North in the Gulf Stream back in the 70's, I looked out and saw a very large gray white leisurely seeing North, as well. We were maybe just South of Hatteras. The shark's body was out of the water from dorsel fin to upper teeth. I was close enough to watch his eyes roll my way to follow me as we sailed past. I decided to reel in my fishing line. Since I was the only one on deck, no one believed me when I told them. We were already past by the time I called anyone on deck. My brother wanted to see if he could catch him, but I said not a good idea.
HUGE!
He must have been THIIIIIISSSS BIG

-Will (Dragonfly)

 

[Rick486]

Sailing North in the Gulf Stream back in the 70's, I looked out and saw a very large gray white leisurely seeing North, as well. We were maybe just South of Hatteras. The shark's body was out of the water from dorsel fin to upper teeth. I was close enough to watch his eyes roll my way to follow me as we sailed past. I decided to reel in my fishing line. Since I was the only one on deck, no one believed me when I told them. We were already past by the time I called anyone on deck. My brother wanted to see if he could catch him, but I said not a good idea.
HUGE!
He must have been THIIIIIISSSS BIG

-Will (Dragonfly)

Exactly like "Jaws" famous line quoted by Maine above, "....you need a bigger boat...".
Terrifying.

 

[Maine Sail]

Back in college when I was competitively fishing for Blue Fin tuna on 130 and 80 class we had what we assume was a 250-300 pound juvenile on the line for over an hour. We were out at Platts Bank a place not well know for sharks compared to others. The blue fin had surfaced and spooled us to the backer line three times already. On the last rise to the surface it saw the boat and bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz went the reel. After a few seconds of run there was a solid jerk and then it just stopped. The line went limp but heavy. We began reeling it back in when we saw the blood rise to the surface of the water and then up pops the head and 1/3 of the blue fin body, the other 2/3 was completely gone in what appeared to be just one bite. Blue fin are rugged fish and usually not attacked by sharks as they are blazing fast but when on a line they are no longer as fast...

At first we assumed it was a Mako, pretty common out there, and they'd been around all day. Mako's can be a real pain eating all your bait, but when we got it to the boat the bite mark was waaaaay too big to be a Mako and the only thing it could have been was a great white. About an hour later, while chunking, we saw the fin and were able to confirm it was in fact a great white. We never had another tuna attacked by a shark but did have a few mako's, blue sharks and poor beagles devour our bait and trolling spreader bars... That day put into perspective just how powerful a white shark can be.

 

[Scott T-Bird]

That's raw nature …. Any ideas what this species could be?

 

[shemandr]

We used to see Great Whites often off Long Island while fishing for tuna. As nearly everyone knows Frank Mundus who fished from Montauk for "Monster" sharks is said to be the inspiration for Quint. But anyway they are regular denizens here and have been for the 50 years I've been paying attention. And we didn't have seals back then - so far as I know.

 

[Maine Sail]

That's raw nature …. Any ideas what this species could be?

Hard to say from the video but I have seen similar behavior in both Mako's and Blue sharks. The tail activity and size would have me leaning towards a school of blue sharks.