Martha Vineyard’s Great White: 1 Real, 1 Hoax
Posted by: Loren Coleman on July 11th, 2008
Update:
A Boston man faced charges of reckless endangerment for allegedly making up a story about a shark sighting off Martha’s Vineyard on Thursday, July 10, 2008, police said.
Michael Lopenzo, 60, is charged with telling people that he saw two 22-foot long sharks that weighed about 3,000 pounds each near State Beach, Edgartown Police Chief Paul Condlin said.
Lopenzo gave his address as 17 Court St., in Boston, which is the address of the New England Shelter for Homeless Veterans.
But there were two sightings at two different beaches Thursday. One at State Beach where parts of “Jaws” was filmed, and one at South Beach. Edgartown police say the sighting at State beach was the hoax, but the threat at South Beach was the real deal.
Lifeguards spotted the shark while they were doing drills in the water, and phoned in a biplane to get a better look. The pilot says that he did in fact spot the shark, a great white shark about 22 feet long!
Beachers also later saw a shark’s fin off State Beach.
See a news video here.
About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct).
Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015.
Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.
I think we need a bigger boat! 😉
22ft and 3,000lb? Much too light. You’d have to double that to 6,000lb at least.
In Jaws, State Beach was where the Kintner attack, Chrissie attack and 4th July/Pond scenes were filmed.
South Beach was where Chrissie runs along the broken fence and runs into the water and where Brody finds her chewed up body were filmed.
I’ll be snorkeling off Martha’s Vineyard’s South Beach for a week staying with friends this September. Hope the 22-footer has moved on by then!
Bad, bad, bad Mr. Lopenzo!!!
Fifty lashes with a wet noodle for that.
I agree—hopefully the shark has moved on…
“I’m talkin’ about workin’ fer a livin’… I’m talkin’ about sharkin’.” 😀