Another great white shark was spotted feeding on a seal off Mount Desert Island on Sunday, according to a Bar Harbor whale watching company.
It was at least the second sighting of the apex predator in the waters off MDI in August, joining what appears to be a growing number of shark encounters off Maine’s coastline in recent years.
A video of the encounter posted by Bar Harbor Whale Watch Company showed the world’s largest known predatory fish striking a seal off Egg Rock in Frenchman Bay. The shark is seen swimming in front of the tour vessel, Miss Samantha, as a chorus of passengers — who expected to see lobsters and seals — voice their astonishment.
“No way — oh my goodness!” several passengers said.
Several spectators confused the shark’s caudal fin — on its tail — as a second shark. The tour boat spotted just one shark on Sunday, according to Captain Tate Krampitz.
Another passenger warned, “more are coming — because of the blood.”
The camera then pans to the shark devouring its prey as a cloud of crimson water surrounds two fins, just 20 to 30 feet from the boat, according Krampitz, who said it was the first such sighting on the company’s Miss Samantha vessel. The Bar Harbor company has spotted great white sharks during whale watching trips farther offshore, he added.
“It’s definitely a once in a lifetime type of interaction to happen so close to a vessel,” Krampitz said.
The shark was 10 to 15 feet long, Krampitz estimated.
“I was really surprised at how quickly it was over,” said Ellie Crane, a staff naturalist who was onboard the vessel. “I would say it was within three to five minutes we saw the shark take the seal and completely eat it. Everything was gone in under five minutes. That was the spookiest part, just how fast the shark disappeared.”
There were 48 passengers onboard the vessel at the time of the sighting, many of whom said the shark was the highlight of their trip, Crane said.
Crane, who is finishing her first season working on the Miss Samantha, saw a great white shark feeding on a dead humpback whale earlier this summer, she said, adding that it was further off shore.
The sighting was one of several along Maine’s coastline this summer.
On Aug. 13, John DeRaps, of Ellsworth, spotted a great white shark feeding on a seal in the Ironbound channel off MDI.
Sharks have also been seen in southern Maine this season. In mid-August, a 71-year-old Scarborough Beach lifeguard came into frightfully close contact with a shark who dragged his yellow torpedo buoy underwater.
Reid State Park in Georgetown temporarily closed its beaches to swimmers on Aug. 10 after an uptick in shark sightings, and Wells Beach limited swimming after a 10-foot juvenile white shark was spotted 500 yards off shore.
Researchers say the white shark population has slowly rebounded since federal protection measures were implemented in the late 1990s, which made it illegal to intentionally kill white sharks.
“We’re starting to see shark sightings more prevalent throughout the Gulf of Maine, but, as of now, this is a very rare occurrence,” Krampitz said. “So no one should really be freaked out by this, but it is a very cool interaction to have.”