09/07/2025
“A CAPE COD SHARK STORY” - A Longform Story
A great white shark was seen yesterday off of Stoney Beach in Woods Hole.
It is the first great white shark seen near Woods Hole in 21 years, since the most famous of all Cape Cod Cape Cod sharks, which was the first seen in Cape Cod waters in a long time.
In late September 2004, a 13-foot female great white shark entered a small lagoon off of Woods Hole and did not leave for 13 days. The shark, a rare sighting at the time, was a harbinger of all the sharks that are here now. It was a worldwide story at the time.
But there's a story within the story and, well, it's a fish story like no other. It involves a fisherman in a small teal skiff chasing the great white shark and, for a brief moment in time, hooking the shark. He let the shark loose in minutes.
He never let the story go. How could he?
And shark expert Greg Skomal, at the time had not previously seen a live great white shark in the North Atlantic. “I’ve just seen my UFO,” he said of his reaction at the time.
This Longform story (a 25-minute read) is from 2014, the tenth anniversary of the shark in the lagoon. It costs $3 to read, less than a cup of coffee.
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WOODS HOLE – Somewhere between Ahab from “Moby Dick”, Santiago from “The Old Man and the Sea”, and Quint from “Jaws” lies Tuck Hayashi, who, ten years ago this week hooked a great white shark from his small teal skiff. He let the shark loose in minutes. He's never let the story go. How...
