Beachgoers undertake Epic Rescue of Great White Shark | Beachgoers to Try to save great white shark stranded on Cape Cod Beach | Beachgoers band together to rescue a 2,000-pound great white shark | At least 100 beachgoers tried to help the 14-foot great white shark get back out to sea. Watch as people on a beach in Cape Cod try to rescue an 11-foot great white shark | Beachgoers worked together to rescue a beached great white shark and get it back in the ocean as a 11-foot shark washed up on a beach in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, US. Beachgoers band together to try and save great white shark stranded on Massachusetts beach People came to the shark's rescue by throwing water at it and towing the predator back into the ocean by digging a trench to the water The footage was captured Robyn Schnaible, who was visiting the beach with her family. She said: “We got there at about 10am, and there was a huge crowd of people up ahead on the beach. We thought it was a whale, but we were told it was a great white that was alive and they were trying to save it. "They dug a huge trench to take him back out to sea – it was like a big slip and slide. “It had taken them a few hours to get to that point. They were using anything they could get their hands on – shovels, sandcastle toys, rubber boot. Someone tied a rope around his tail and a paddle boarder took the other end out to a boat with a tow on it." Huge Great White Shark Dies After Beaching on Cape Cod Police said the shark was helped out to deeper water by a Shark Conservancy boat. The animal appeared to be injured, they said, and NBC station WJAR of Providence, Rhode Island, reported that the animal later died. "It was gasping for air on the shore," a witness, Bill Bellrose, told WJAR. "It was big — it was a big shark." Dozens of beachgoers banded together in Cape Cod in an attempt to save a 14-ft great white shark, after the powerful predator found itself helpless and suffocating on the sand. The helpers dug a trench around the creature which extended out to sea on Whitecrest beach in Wellfleet, Massachusetts. Some stood around the shark and doused it with water, while others tied a bright yellow cord around the animal. Footage of the operation shows the crowd cheering and whooping as dozens of people grab onto the rope and pull the shark, believed to weigh 2,000lbs (900kg), out to sea. An official is seen shouting at those gathered at the spot in order to disperse the crowd away from the shore. Robyn Schnaible, who filmed the video, wrote on Vimeo that the rescuers tied one end of the rope around its tail while the other end was attached to a boat. However, despite their best efforts, the shark died shortly after. “It was an impressive effort, but unfortunately the shark did not swim off once he was back in the water,” said Ms Schnaible. The shark became stranded after it got into difficulty while navigating the shallows, Greg Skomal, an shark expert with the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, told the Boston Globe. Mr Skomal said that shark beachings are “very unusual” and that saving the animal, which was likely dead before it returned to the sea, would have been very difficult. A 14-foot beached great white shark died on the shore of Whitecrest Beach in Wellfleet Sunday, despite efforts to return it to the ocean. A crowd of about 100 people gathered around the suffocating shark around 8 a.m., including police, lifeguards and vacationers who repeatedly heaved buckets of water onto the male in an attempt to keep it alive, according to The Boston Herald. The crowd dug a holding pool and trench for the male shark before tying a rope to its tail, The Boston Globe reports. Someone then attached the other end of the rope to an offshore Atlantic White Shark Conservancy boat, and the crowd dragged the shark down the trench and into the ocean. Greg Skomal, a shark expert with the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, performed a necropsy on the shark at the Chatham Fish Pier. He told Globe reporters that other than injuries sustained from the stranding, including cuts on its underside and internal bleeding, the animal appeared to be healthy. He also said the fish was likely dead by the time it was returned to the water. The official cause of death could not be determined. Skomal estimates the shark weighed about 2,000 pounds. Sharks beaching themselves is very rare, Skomal said, although this is the second time it's occurred on Cape Cod this summer. A 7 and 1/2-foot great white was successfully rescued in July using similar tactics near South Beach in Chatham, and has since been seen offshore. Watch a video of the attempted rescue, recorded by a vacationer, below. News Stranded Great White Shark Dies On Wellfleet Beach September 6, 2015 3:04 PM Share on email68 View Comments Related Tags: Great White Shark, welfleet

• published: 08 Sep 2015
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