CONFIRMED: Man Catches Great White Shark in Old Orchard Beach, Maine
Ever since I was a kid, I hate the idea of ocean swimming.
Nothing against people who love it, but I saw Jaws when I was a kid. Any child of the 70's will tell you that we were practically afraid to take a bath after seeing it. Heck, even just having a sunfish swim against my leg in the lake at camp was enough to get me scrambling for shore.
These days, we've all had to take a more practical view of sharks due to them showing up in New England more and more. Even Maine isn't immune to the tragedies Great White sharks can render. Just a few years ago, a woman was sadly killed by one off Maine's coast. A tragedy that gave quite a wake up call around Maine.
This video that popped up on Reddit is bonkers.
Today, footage started popping up all over social media about a man allegedly catching a juvenile Great White right off of Old Orchard Beach, near Randall Ave in Ocean Park. In all the spots this popped up, people were speculating whether or not it was actually a Great white, because it's somewhat hard to tell in the video.
I reached out to Matthew Davis, the person that Maine.gov tells you to reach out to for all questions regarding Great Whites, and he confirmed that it was indeed, a Great White shark. I found this mind-blowing. We all know it's possible, but you always expect it's going to be something else.
Other folks thought it was a porbeagle or maybe a thresher. Either way, it doesn't look like something I'd wanna crawl around in the water with. Even despite their reputation, it was nice to see by the end, that they let it go. Granted, it will grow up to be a bigger shark. But hey... that's not the shark's fault.
Keep scrolling to see that there's plenty of other scary things in the world besides sharks...