I am always pleased to receive questions to which I know the answers without having to do much research. However, I also find the research fascinating due to incidental intriguing discoveries. For example, I found this quotation in Bigelow and Schroeder’s classic Fishes of the Gulf of Maine while reading about white sharks, or “maneaters,” and their habits.

The maneater is usually looked on as a warm water shark, doubtlessly correctly so. Nonetheless, it has been reliably reported from the southwestern part of the Gulf of Maine more often than it has from any other coastal sector of comparable length on the Atlantic coast of North America. At least 10, for example, were actually captured or were harpooned and lost in Massachusetts Bay alone during the period 1935 to 1948.
There have also been many reports of great whites south of Cape Cod in recent years, including the one that got embayed in an inlet at Nonamesset Island, just south of Woods Hole, and was seen by hundreds. I visited this shark several times and was close enough to touch its dorsal fin on one occasion, but I never saw it leap.
I have been fishing the Chatham waters for almost 10 years and have witnessed the explosion in the seal population, particularly within Chatham Harbor. Reports of great white shark sightings have also increased in the area, although none within the harbor.

Pops,
During Columbus Day weekend, I was fishing with a couple of friends for bass and blues in the vicinity of the sea buoy outside the entrance to Chatham Harbor when I witnessed what appeared to be a great white leap from the water, clear its full length, nose over and re-enter. It appeared to be about 15 feet long and was about 200 yards away. My friends were focused on their trolling and did not see it.
I mentioned it to my son, and he stated that the only place that great whites have been seen leaping was off the coast of South Africa, while in pursuit of seals. His argument does not seem logical. I contend that if a shark were attacking a seal from below, it is quite likely that its momentum could carry it out of the water, South Africa notwithstanding.
Have you heard of any other reports of jumping whites around the Cape?
Best regards,
Jack Piela
Brewster, MA

I do know of a sighting of a leaping white shark a few miles east of the Sandwich entrance to the Cape Cod Canal. An old friend of mine, Pete Sadis, who is an oceanographer, lobsterman, master boatman and inventor, was returning from a salvage site someplace near Provincetown to his base in Woods Hole when he espied a great turmoil in the distance on the surface. It was big enough to rouse his curiosity, so he steered toward the uproar for a better look.
Many of you have seen the famous photographs of giant bluefin tuna attacking a school of large bluefish. One shot in particular sticks in my mind: a bluefish high above the water with a bluefin in hot pursuit, also totally airborne. Imagine that picture with an also-airborne great white in hot pursuit of the tuna. This is what Pete witnessed, and I envy the experience. You can believe everything Pete tells you about things and happenings on the sea surface, and about some things and happenings in the deep. A salvage man cannot tell you the whole truth, but I am certain that his description of this wild predatory scene is accurate, and I wish that I had been there.
I cannot imagine why your son thought great whites only leapt off South Africa. Here is another bit of interesting information: A large mako, 500 pounds or more, must be moving at 35 mph to leap its own length above the surface.

Pops,
I was filleting fish at the Martha’s Vineyard Derby when I came across a striped bass with a wound I have never seen before. It was a perfect triangle, about 2 inches on all 3 sides. It was about 1/8-inch deep. It was fresh, and the angler didn’t know how it got there. What caused this? Seal? Shark? Turtle?
Will Point
West Tisbury, MA

The first creature that came to mind after reading your question was the cookie-cutter shark, Isistius brasiliensis. This is a weird, small shark, rarely over 18 inches long, that makes a living by biting chunks of muscle out of larger marine creatures. I quickly rejected this idea, however, because the sharp-toothed little beast leaves a round wound. This ballsy little bugger attacks swordfish, porpoises, and even whales, but although it is found here and there all over the world’s oceans, I have never heard of one in our area. I am glad they are not more common. I would hate to have one take a chunk out of me, which is literally what they do. Yikes!
Lampreys leave round wounds, smaller than what you describe, so they are out. I don’t think a sea turtle could catch a fish, though a freshwater snapping turtle can. Cormorants make triangular wounds, but small, and do not attack large fish as a rule.
I can’t imagine anything that would make an equilateral triangle wound 1/8-inch deep, unless it was some object aboard the boat that wounded the fish as it struggled. I guess I have to admit that I really have no idea about how this wound was made. If anyone else has seen anything like this, please let me know. It is a fascinating puzzle.

Dear Pops,
I caught this striper in skinny water (8 feet) as it was chasing bait. I spotted the stripers from the deck of my friend’s boat, and I offered them an 8-inch popper. One tail-slapped it, then swirled and came in for the kill. I waited until I felt the weight of the fish, then set the hook, and it was great. This was in the Mystic River, in Connecticut. I usually like to see what my catch has been feeding on. At first I thought they were juvenile lobster; the tail looked right, but the claws and hairy underside didn’t seem to look like lobster. I thought maybe you’d know what these critters are. The bass sure loved them and still went for my popper. I love “Ask Pops” and always read it first when OTW comes, and then I read the recipes. When you started advertising your cookbook, it was great to put a face to the man writing the columns. My birthday is past, but Christmas is coming. Keep up the good work!
Steve Hoffman
P.S. Could you be responsible for my (burp) weight gain?

I do know what these creatures are, and I sure wish I knew where I could get some because these things are delicious. They are mantis shrimp, Squilla empusa, a burrowing shrimp that occurs in muddy bottoms from Cape Cod to the Gulf of Mexico. As far as I know, they are impossible to find commercially available, despite their delectability. The few that I have eaten – never enough for a full meal – I found in the wrack and seaweed blown by a strong onshore gale of wind. I remember that the aftermath of one such gale on a south-facing beach here on Cape Cod gave me two lobsters, a half-dozen blue crabs, three mantis shrimp and a peck of bay scallops, all gathered before breakfast. It is first-come, first-served after these storms – you must beat the gulls to get the scallops.
Be careful if you come upon live mantis shrimp because their forelimbs are strong and sharp and can deliver a very painful cut. These limbs are much like the limbs of the insect after which it is named, the praying mantis, and they have the shared purpose of capturing prey. The mantis shrimp has two sharp spines on its tail that can make nasty puncture wounds when it reflexively snaps its tail as it tries to escape; if you are not careful, the shrimp will wound you repeatedly in its frantic efforts.
The shrimp you found in your bass looked good enough to eat; I might have tried them. It would be great to have a bass trained to gather them for you. The Chinese have used cormorants for fishing, South Pacific Islanders have used tethered remoras to glom onto sea turtles, so why not a fish to gather mantis shrimp? I think I’m getting soft.

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