More than 1,000 swimmers at a Massachusetts beach were forced to evacuate on Monday afternoon, after a great white shark was spotted off the coast of Duxbury, CNN reported. No injuries were reported during the evacuation.
The shark, seen from a Massachusetts State Police helicopter, was about 75 yards from the beach when authorities spied it swimming in the waters of Duxbury Beach, Massachusetts State Police announced on their Facebook page.
"It is rather infrequent for us to see a shark within 75 yards in that area," said state trooper Dustin Fitch.
Duxbury Police and the Duxbury harbormaster were then immediately notified by the state police, according to UK MailOnline. The shark was confirmed by Massachusetts Marine Fisheries to be a great white, measuring approximately 14 feet in length.
At around 2 p.m. Monday, a police helicopter spotted the shark in the water near the area of powder point Bride. As state police tracked the shark from above while it swam southwest into deeper water, the U.S. Coast Guard, Duxbury harbormaster, Plymouth harbormaster and Marshfield harbormaster scouted the area to make sure there were no more sharks in the water.
Duxbury Fire Chief Kevin Nord said two local harbormaster boats also surrounded the shark in an effort to force it out of the area, according to The Boston Globe.
Since the sharks are usually located on the outer cape, Duxbury's assistant harbormaster Steve Cameron said this was an unusual sighting.
One beachgoer tried to make light of the situation by writing "you're gonna need a bigger boat" from the movie "Jaws" in the sand, CBS reported.
Duxbury Beach is an unusual location for a shark sighting and Nord said that it was swimming "too close for comfort," adding that the shark spotted on Monday was the largest shark he's seen all year.
After being closed for two hours on Monday afternoon, the beach was later reopened.
