BIG shark in gansett Saturday

[loOse1]

Spent 6 days spearing last week in RI, visiting family from florida, Was working some holes off Hazard rock on Sat when a bunch of people on the rock started screaming and waving franticly SHARK! Get outta the water! I never did see it myself, they told me it was cruising parallel with the shore about 100' from the rocks till it was right in front of us then headed towards us, there were 5 of us in the water. They said they thought the fin was somewhere between 1 and 2 feet high, sounded like it must have been pretty big. After spearing in Florida I was jazzed to not have to worry about sharks in RI, guess I was wrong there. Do any of you NE guys have shark encounters? I grew up in RI and in the sea, my dad's been diving and spearing those waters for 40 years and has never seen a shark, was saturday just a fluke? I've never heard of anyone getting bit up there.

[holymackerel]

Well... if it was one fin, it was not a shark. It could have been a sunfish. Although when I was a kid, I slammed into a 14 foot Mako sunning about 30 yards off a rock just outside of westport harbor in a friends skiff. It was pissed-scared the shit out of me(and I was in a boat!). I will never forget that till' I die.

[needgills]

I've often seen Mola Mola (Ocean Sunfish) in the bay, so maybe not a shark. If the fin is floppy its a mola not a shark. To the untrained eye it looks like a shark. If you don't know what you're looking at it can be easily mistaken for a shark. Mola molas don't really swim towards you though, they kind of go with the flow...

I've gotten out of the water at Hazard before because I got a glimpse of something big and got the spooks...

[Chauggie]

In believe they closed down Narragansett Beach for a few days last year around this time of year after some sharks were sighted there. It may have some of the locals shark happy. I've never seen anything but spiney dog fish.
I have only heard of three divers seeing large "Squared tailed" sharks with no incidents.
In MA there has only been one recorded death by shark attack, not sure about RI.
Chauggie

[clavinr]

Mola molas are really cool to swim with and kayak around. I have seen them a couple of times. BIG.

[needgills]

Big and weird. I was on my way to a site in my skiff last year and saw one. Hopped in the water and swam around it - the big eye following me the whole way. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me. Who said evolution was a perfect process...a fish with no tail, but then again no real predators.

[Hawkeye]

Just saw in the news a Great White was seen off the coast of Mass.--I guess you do have sharks in New England

[junior]

Wasn't there a movie about a big GWS around the northeast:p Of course ya got shocks up that way. In fact, I saw something on the news about a big GWS really close to shore over the weekend. Did not catch the whole story though.

[needgills]

Here's a local article with a picture: http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2004/09/24/great_white_shark_tagged_off_elizabeth_islands

Suiting up for a dive on Friday we were talking about it...first thing I saw in the low vis was a 3-4 foot shark - great... Fortunately only a dogfish. Saw several that day.

http://www.spearboard.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=11931