Grace Coale, 19, wasn’t scared when she saw a 25-foot shark headed toward her fishing boat as she and her father were fishing near Meadowdale Wharf Saturday. The Edmonds native realized that she had spotted a basking shark, a rare species in Puget Sound.
According to our online news partner The Seattle Times, Coale began taking photos of the shark as it approached; Coale also sent those photos to My Edmonds News.
Dr. Heidi Dewar, fishery research biologist with National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration, confirmed that Coale’s photos were of a basking shark. Basking sharks aren’t historically rare to the Puget Sound, but hunting and bycatching has led to a limited number of sharks in the area, Dewar said.
You can read the full Seattle Times story here.
This is “Shark Week” on the Discovery Channel. Here are some programs that didn’t make the cut!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lM5tPw3uEY