RI SHARK WEEK: Local Shark Attacks
Tuesday, August 02, 2011
Ever since Chief Martin Brody iconically declared, “We’re gonna need a bigger boat,” in Steven Spielberg’s 1975 film Jaws, the country has been both petrified and infatuated with sharks.
On day two of RI Shark Week, it was time to get into the water and itemize the shark attacks and sightings here in the Ocean State.
This summer: shark-free (so far)
Rhode Islanders should be happy to hear that there have been no confirmed shark sightings this summer, although there have been several Great White sightings off the coast of Cape Cod. Sharks sightings in our home state are far from abnormal, however.
2010: Shark Advisory!
It was a busy shark season on our coasts, and was, in fact, the first time the Coast Guard issued a shark advisory for the Northeast, warning recreational boaters and paddlers to be watchful of predatory sharks that
could capsize a small boat or kayak.
And why not? Three shark sightings in one day at Misquamicut Beach in Westerly prompted officials to close the beach temporarily to swimmers. At nearby Horseneck Beach in Westport, two shark sightings in three days in early August prompted a beach closing. Several Great Whites were spotted along the Cape Cod coast, including off Truro and Provincetown.GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLAST
2009: Great White at Narragansett
Close to home off the shores of Narragansett Beach, a 10-foot Great White shark was reported to be pulled from a fish trap, and then released.
RI shark attacks
Actual shark attacks, however, are extremely rare. In Rhode Island there has only been one confirmed, unprovoked shark attack since 1670. In all of New England there have only been five total shark attacks since 1670, two of which were fatal.
The only death by shark our state has seen might as well have been a scene from Jaws. In 1816 a young boy was attacked while swimming to shore from a vessel in Bristol Harbor. When the boy's mangled remains were found a few days later, it was discovered that he'd been deprived of his arms and legs.
1999: Close encounter of the shark kind
The only other Rhode Islander with first-hand experience with a shark is Laurie Boyett of Wakefield.
On vacation in Hawaii in 1999, Boyett was swimming near the famous Kona Village Resort. Boyett, 51 at the time, was swimming with her nephew about 300 yards offshore at about 5:20pm, when a shark bit her right buttock. As she fought to free herself, she injured her fingers as well.
Two hotel workers used a small boat to pluck her and her nephew from the bloodied ocean, and then Boyett was flown by helicopter to Kona Community Hospital, where she recovered.
