October 14, 2014 — When a gray shape passes silently under his or her board, it's always there in a surfer's mind, that maybe this one is a great white shark. Most of the time, the big whiskered head of a seal will pop up with a noisy snort and curious stare.
There was no doubt in paddleboarder Tom Menard's mind that he was looking at a great white last week while out at Coast Guard Beach with more than a dozen other surf enthusiasts. The water was only 5 feet deep, and clear right to the bottom.
He'd just commented to those nearby that there weren't any seals around.
"I saw this shark as clear as can be," Menard recalled. "There was no mistaking it. I remember watching the outline of his tail, the whole thing."
Menard estimated it was around 12 feet in length, and really wide, as it passed between him and a woman surfer just 5 feet away.
"She looked at me and said, 'Was that just a shark?'"
Menard yelled out a warning and nearly everyone went in to shore.
"It does spook you a little bit," said Menard, 65, who's been surfing the Cape for 40 years. "This is the first time in my life I've ever seen one swim by."
Surfers have become more accustomed to the new reality of life in the water: There seem to be more great whites every year, and, since they hunt seals close to shore, they are being spotted in the surf line.
Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times