Great white shark rescued from beach

A great white shark has been rescued after it was stranded on a beach at Chatham, Massachusetts in the US.

Witnesses say the seven-foot male shark got stuck as the tide went out.

Members of the public kept the shark alive and wet by splashing it with buckets of water until officials arrived.

The harbour master then attached a line to his rear caudal fin and pulled it back into open waters to release it safely back into the sea. ( From CBBC Newsround)

Witnesses said the two-metre male was stranded by a receding tide. ( From The Guardian)

Local harbour master Stuart Smith was able to attach a rope to the shark and, with the help of colleagues, dragged it back into the sea ending the rescue at around 5pm.

“Twenty, 25 years ago, they wouldn’t be exactly helping the shark. They’d be harming the shark. But now every single person on that beach was trying to assist it,” Mr Smith told the Boston Globe. “The people on the beach made the difference.”

Greg Skomal, a biologist from the state’s Division of Marine Fisheries, was also on hand to help, attaching an acoustic tag to the animal to enable researchers to track its movements along the Cape Cod coast.

He also praised the actions of the crowd, noting that when the great white eventually started swimming roughly a mile out to sea spectators “started clapping on the shoreline”.

Although the video does not appear to show the shark swimming, it has been reported that the fish survived – despite appearing close to death in much of the video. ( From The Independent)