The Weymouth Shark Sighting Probably Wasn’t a Shark

Photo via Facebook

Officials are going back and forth over whether or not there was a shark sighting off the coast of Weymouth on Thursday.

According to the Weymouth Police Department, who snapped a photo of the supposed shark cruising near a public beach, and posted it on their Facebook page, at around noon they received several calls about a possible shark sighting at Lane Beach in North Weymouth.

Police said that lifeguards reported seeing what they believed to be a shark in the water and ordered everyone to get out of the ocean and on to the beach. The Weymouth Harbormaster and Animal Control Officer responded and searched the area but couldn’t locate the alleged shark. “Photos and video taken at the scene of the sighting were shown to experts who could not determine if it was in fact a shark however they could not rule it out,” according to Weymouth police. “It is possible that it was an ocean sunfish mistaken for a shark which is a common occurrence.”

Police said ocean sunfish are “very large” and often swim near the surface because they feed mainly on jellyfish. Their protruding dorsal fins are sometimes mistaken for those of sharks, they said. “Ocean sunfish are docile and not a danger to swimmers,” police told the public to ease their fears that there may be a large shark coasting near the popular beach area.

As news came out about the possible shark sighting, at a time when Great Whites have been spotted in multiple locations along the Massachusetts coastline, shark experts in Chatham debunked the idea that it was in fact a shark that showed up in Weymouth.

Based on the fact that the Atlantic White Shark conservancy, which is based in Chatham, revealed that Discovery Channel’s Shark Week documentary about the prehistoric Megalodon shark still being alive and lurking in the ocean was a fake,  their prediction is probably correct. 

Below is a video taken from the scene of the sighting on Thursday, which shows the fin flopping back and forth, something that probably wouldn’t occur if it were attached to a shark, via Barstool Sports.