Cape Cod Beachgoers Rush to Save Beached Great White Shark

A great white shark washed up ashore on a beach in Cape Cod, and hundreds of people tried to save it instead of running for their lives.

What’s the first thing anyone in the ocean can think of when coming face to face with a great predator from the deep? The first impulse is to scream and swim away as fast as anyone can. Or run hell bent for leather towards shore away from immediate danger of consumption.

Great white sharks don’t inspire warm, fuzzy feelings, what with their cold, clammy skin, evil-looking slit eyes, gargantuan mouths, rows upon rows of sharp, serrated teeth, and their tendency to take huge chunks out of people.

But when one such huge predator washed up on the shores of a beach in Massachusetts, USA, scores of beachgoers rushed to try and rescue the dangerous fish, without regard to their own exposed flesh.

A man pours a bucket of sea water on the one-ton 14-foot great white shark

The incident took place on a beach on White Crest Beach in Wellfleet, Massachusetts on a Sunday just after 8 a.m. The massive animal washed ashore, and hundreds of people hurried to try and get the huge predator back to sea.

Initially just splashing water on the one-ton great white shark, they eventually formed a bucket brigade, carrying water from the ocean to the shark to try and keep the 14-foot sharp-toothed predator from drowning in the sand.

Hundreds of people form a bucket brigade to keep the shark from drowning

Beachgoers also dug a trench around the gasping fish, leading all the way to the water to help tow it back to the ocean safely.

People dug a trench towards the sea to make it easier to move the shark to the ocean

They were joined by National Park Service rangers and police officers who helped to keep crowd control, until eventually members of the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy arrived. The Conservancy members tied a rope around the shark’s tail as its boat attempted to tow it back to deeper waters, attempting to revive the shark by steering the boat in circles.

Unfortunately, despite everyone’s best efforts, the great white shark died.

The Conservancy was unable to ascertain why the predator beached itself, as the behavior is only common in whales. They also took tissue samples from the shark to send to researchers for further study.

Like the people on that Cape Cod beach, would you also risk life and limb to save a predator?

Sources: Unilad, NewsWeek, People