A great white shark.
PROVINCETOWN – A white shark seen last weekend that bit an entangled humpback whale off the coast of Provincetown is known to researchers.
The shark was identified by Dr. Greg Skomal and John Chisholm of the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries as WS 14-57, a 14 foot female that the researchers tagged last year.
This is the first sighting of the shark this year.
The Marine Animal Entanglement Response Team at the Center for Coastal Studies, freed the whale on Stellwagen Bank, five miles north of Provincetown.
The whale, which was hogtied from mouth to tail, had sustained bite injuries from the circling white shark.
According to Center for Coastal Studies researchers, shark predation on live whales in the waters off New England is rare; sharks are most likely to target dead or incapacitated whales, very young, injured or sick individuals.
