WELLS, Maine — Three great white shark sightings were reported to officials on Saturday — the 40th anniversary of the release of the first summer blockbuster, “Jaws.”
The first possible great white sighting was reported in Wells.
Wells police said a charter fishing vessel 1.2 miles off the coast of Moody Beach reported seeing a great white shark around 1:30 p.m. Saturday afternoon.
The harbor master deployed a boat in the area but was not able to confirm the sighting.
Police said they contacted the U.S. Coast Guard and neighboring communities and made them aware of the sighting.
Officials said great white sightings are not infrequent. However, the sighting at Wells was abnormal because of the time of year and proximity to the beach.
Jaron Thibault said he was on a charter fishing boat and that he saw what he thinks was a shark. He was able to take some pictures of the fish’s fin.
Wells Harbor Master Chris Mayo said he believes that the sighting was credible. He said because an experienced charter boat captain reported the sighting, he believes it is a great white shark based on the captain’s description and the speed of the fish.
“In my time as harbor master, this is the most credible report of a large predator,” Mayo said. It is Mayo’s fifth year as Wells harbor master.
Wells police said they will continue to try to confirm the species of shark. They said there is no danger to the public.
A second possible great white shark sighting was reported to the U.S. Coast Guard in Portland at 7:45 p.m. on Saturday by Kevin Proctor.
Proctor said a large fish swam under his 22-foot-long boat, and when it came up on the other side of the boat, he said he saw its fin. He said it happened 26 miles off Portland in deep water where he and his friends were fishing for blue sharks.
Around 3:05 p.m., after not catching any blue sharks, one of the four people on the boat said they saw something big behind the boat, according to Proctor.
He said it went under the boat and swam alongside it. Proctor said it was roughly 6 feet away from the boat when they saw it and that it was long as the boat.
“Everybody froze. We were in shock,” Proctor said.
Proctor described the shark as gray with a white underbelly and a vertical tail fin. He also said the blue sharks were not acting as they usually do — they stayed away from the boat even after the men had been baiting the water for more than an hour.
Old Orchard Beach lifeguards are also keeping an eye out for great white sharks after a master diver swimming off Old Orchard Beach reported to Wells police that he had spotted a great white on Saturday as well. Wells police passed the message on to Old Orchard Beach officials.
The diver said he was between 100 and 200 yards offshore when he reportedly spotted a great white shark.
Members of the public are encouraged to report to police any shark sightings that are near the shore.
“Jaws,” directed by Steven Spielberg, was released on June 20, 1975, according to the Internet Movie Data Base. Based on the 1974 novel by Peter Benchley, “Jaws” was the story of a great white shark that menaced the small island community of Amity. The police chief, a marine scientist and a grizzled fisherman set out to stop it.
The film cost an estimated $8 million to make and grossed about $260 million in the U.S. alone.
The tagline for the film was “Don’t go in the water.” Beach attendance in the summer of 1975 reportedly plummeted as people who had seen the film stay home out of fear. The movie’s impact on sharks themselves was good and bad.
“On the one hand, the movie did damage to sharks, because people saw them as monsters,” Robert Hueter, who directs the Center for Shark Research at the Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota, Florida, told National Geographic on the 30th anniversary of the movie’s release. “But for scientists, the whole “Jaws” thing started working in our favor, because of the overexaggerated public interest in these animals.”
BDN writer Judy Harrison contributed to this report.