Gloucester - Basking Shark
 

My friend was out in front of Gloucester last week and looksy what came visiting........

Close up at boat
 

yikes, thats big....

Where abouts was that? I was out both days last weekend, and wish that I was there to see that.
Amazing.

According to him, they were about 10 nautical miles south of Eastern point in Gloucester in about 300 feet of water looking for some tuna, near the yellow buoy at the dumping grounds.....

They had a few of them in Chatam all summer!! I almost ran one down in the fog!!

I had a run in with one this past summer also. Scared the crap outa me, just came right up to the boat. Didn't know what it was at first, but once we figured it out, really cool ;).

Last Saturday fishing for Haddock off the tail end of Jeffreys ledge in (NH)

Had a shark there,, not that big but 6 to 7 feet. almost the width of the boat. Stayed for over 2 hours

My wife had more fun watching the shark then fishing.

It was a contest to get the Haddock up and in the boat before the shark got them. (he never got a 1)

Fun to watch them bite at the motor!

I wanted to start it!

Kidding,, you can imagin the response my wife had after watching it all afternoon.

FYI- Basking sharks are "filter-feeders", and are as harmless as whale sharks. They have no teeth, and eat plankton. Freinds of mine used to see them cruising along the south shore when they took their boat out for a cruise.
I can recall a story some years ago about a basking shark that had swam into the shallows near/around Wollaston beach.
Even then, there was some idiot wanting to claim "idiot" bragging rights by trying to snag it. Once the authorities "convinced" him to stop, the shark proceeded to head back out to sea.
They can get quite large, but are very docile creatures, and are unusually curious about boats.