I swim off Lighthouse Beach Chatham, MA. Over the last 10 eyars, the seal population has exploded. There are now an estimated 9000 seals living off the shores here. The avereage seal consumes 30 pounds of seafood each day. The average seal weigh between 400-600 pounds.

Chatham WAS a fishing village….not anymore! Seals have cleaned out many varieties of fish stock. Yes, there are Great Whites in Chatham. I have photos of last summer’s carcass….huge jaw marks and distinctive tooth marks impressed into the remains of seal.

While I do continue swimming at Lighthouse Beach, I avoid riding waves with the seals. I don’t want to resemble a “moving buffet.” I figure the rip tides and currents are far more threatening than Great Whites………

If rounded it was a basking shark – which get quite big but are essentially harmless. When you get the pics, the Beast would love to see.

Funniest thing is we brought our neice with us and it was her first time going to the ocean. All last night she kept saying she didn’t want to go because there are sharks in the ocean. We kept telling her that there wouldn’t be any there. Sure enough the first thing when we get there someone points out the sharks. We even looked at them with binoculars. I tried to get pictures but am not sure if I caught them or not yet, we just got home.

This was all at about 2:30 this afternoon.

Great august filler shark month blog.

Anyway thought I’d share this with you about sharks caught near my hometown of Alton,Il on the mississippi. Now granted its no Great white but consider the distance it travel from the gulf ofmexico yes sharks can survive in fresh water.

anyway enjoy the link
http://www.elasmo-research.org/education/shark_profiles/carcharhinidae.htm

P.S. the Queen of mean Leaona Helmsley died since we’re talking about sharks

Aug. 20, 2003: Deborah Franzman was swimming at the surface among a group of pinnipeds — seals or sea lions — off Avila Pier on the central California coast, when a great white shark, estimated to be 15 to 18 feet long, grabbed her leg. It stripped the flesh from her left thigh, severing the femoral artery. She was briefly pulled below the surface and then released. When lifeguards reached her a few minutes later, she was facedown in the water. Authorities said she had bled to death.

Franzman, A 50-year-old college instructor, swam there several times a week and particularly enjoyed playing with the seals.

From this incident, two conclusions come to mind:

1. Ms. Franzman swam with seals for years without incident, so it can’t really be THAT risky.
2. On the other hand, it caught up to her eventually, didn’t it? All it takes is one massive hit to ruin your day.

Oh, and thanks for the link. Sharks are everywhere…

Shark Tales No More. Live Sharks Caught in Minnehaha Creek:
http://www.nokomiseast.org/yard/light/creeksharks.html