CANADIAN SHARK ATTACK REGISTRY

Beachcomber battles threatening shark

Case number: 8
Date: 1888.08.27
Location: Baie des Ha! Ha! (Saguenay, Québec)
Incident type: Undetermined
Species: Greenland shark (Somniosus microcephalus)
Possible cause(s): Unknown
Result: No injury
Status: Discredited
Description: A woman beachcombing for firewood reportedly¹ came across a live four-metre Greenland shark stranded on shore on the Saguenay River at low tide. Terrified by the “sea monster” she attacked it with the gaffe that she always carried with her while looking for wood. The wounded beast stood straight on its tail and hissed during the unrelenting battle that followed between the two foes. The woman eventually won the fight when the ebbing tide left the wounded shark completely exposed which she stabbed with a coup-de-grâce in its throat. A crowd quickly assembled on the shore where the shark was cut open, revealing its cartilaginous skeleton and many rows of teeth.

Assessment: The shark was identified as a [man-eating] porbeagle shark, but it is our determination that it was a Greenland shark due primarily to its size and location. The porbeagle is a fish-eating shark with a verified maximum length of 263 cm². We have also witnessed the death throes of a stranded Greenland shark, which can by no means [stand straight on its tail] under any circumstances. Finally, sharks do not have organs to produce sound. Any sounds heard [hiss] may have been air escaping from the shark’s mouth as it struggled out of water. This was neither an attack nor a fight [battle] as the shark was either struggling to get back into deep water or trying to escape its attacker.

1941 rehash: In a later version³ of what is likely the same incident, it is said that the stranded shark nearly ate a woman that was washing her laundry in the river.

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References:
¹ Le Progrès du Saguenay, 27 septembre, 1888.
² Castro, J. I. 2011. The Sharks of North America. Oxford University Press, 613 p.
³ Le Progrès du Golfe. Une histoire de requins. 06.06.1941
(Background) Scene from the Saguenay Fjord in 1886. Photo by Samuel McLaughlin (Public domain)
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(Above) A stranded Greenland shark cannot stand on its tail. Photo from Baie-Comeau (2005) © ORS
Misrepresented and misunderstood, sharks play a critical role in North Atlantic ecosystems, but they are under increasing threat due to their unfair reputation, pollution, and a lack of public awareness. Please donate to help us study and protect the sharks of the St. Lawrence and Atlantic Canada before it’s too late.Donations to ORS, an all-volunteer charitable not-for-profit organisation, are tax deductible in Canada. Canada Revenue Agency #834462913RR0001

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Misrepresented and misunderstood, sharks play a critical role in North Atlantic ecosystems, but they are under increasing threat due to their unfair reputation, pollution, and a lack of public awareness. Please donate to help us study and protect the sharks of the St. Lawrence and Atlantic Canada before it’s too late.Donations to ORS, an all-volunteer charitable not-for-profit organisation, are tax deductible in Canada. Canada Revenue Agency #834462913RR0001

DONATE

“Fear and indifference bite deeper than any shark.”— Jeffrey Gallant, St. Lawrence Shark ObservatoryTax deductible in Canada
CRA #834462913RR0001DONATE