Great white sharks have been turning up along the southern Maine coast in recent weeks, from Scarborough to Georgetown, and one Saco photographer wanted to see them for himself.
Instead, Bob Wiegers found thousands of striped bass.
The recent shark activity caught Wiegers’ attention after photographer Karl Ramsdell and others began sharing drone footage of great whites in Saco Bay. Ramsdell’s videos, including footage of several sharks swimming and feeding near Pine Point last week, inspired Wiegers to launch his own drone in search of the predators.
A photographer with Bayview Media, a real estate photography business, Wiegers grew up fascinated by the ocean and was eager to see a great white from the air.
His first attempt came Friday at Pine Point in Scarborough, where he found an e-foil surfer instead of a shark. He also happened to run into Ramsdell, who suggested trying the Goosefare Brook area.
On Sunday morning, Wiegers launched his drone from Bayview Beach under calm, clear conditions.
He didn’t find a shark.
Instead, just offshore, he spotted a huge school of striped bass slowly circling in what he called a mesmerizing ball.
“I found something much more moving,” Wiegers wrote on Facebook.
He expected sharks to crash into the school at any moment, but they never did.
On Monday morning, Wiegers returned to search for sharks again, but there weren’t any. The striped bass were still there — and there were even more of them.
“This school made the first one look small,” Wiegers wrote.
The sight left him wondering whether the bass were reacting to sharks in the area.
“It seems clear enough the striped bass are schooling in a defensive posture with sharks in the area, but I’m neither a scientist nor much of a fisherman,” he wrote.
Although he didn’t find the great white he was looking for, his photos and video speak for themselves.