A dead shark turned up in the surf at Menemsha Beach Sunday afternoon, attracting a small crowd of gawkers. Word about the shark first surfaced when Menemsha Texaco sent out a picture via Instagram.
Off the coast of Chatham, a team of nearly 20 expert fishermen and scientists from around the country is ready. For the past 30 days they have lived and fished aboard the M/V OCEARCH in hopes of capturing, examining and tagging live white sharks.
Scientists heading a worldwide shark-tagging research project will visit to the Vineyard Sunday to meet the public and answer questions.
The send-off felt a little like the dawn of a new adventure, a trip to uncharted territory — a discoverer’s voyage to the new world or the Wild West. And the subject of the voyage is almost as mysterious and misunderstood, its public perception more determined by stereotypes.
On Saturday, July 27, the film Sharkwater screens at 8 p.m. at the Katherine Cornell Theatre in Vineyard Haven. The documentary directed by Rob Stewart, aims to debunk stereotypes of sharks as vicious killers of the sea. Mr. Stewart’s film travels the oceans of the world exploring the lives of sharks, the people seeking to protect them and others who try to exploit and kill them, including shark poachers in Guatemala and marine reserves in Costa Rica and the Galapagos Islands.
On the surface it seems like a simple and straightforward equation: more seals equals more great white sharks. The connection, however, is likely far more complicated.