Yahoo News Nantucket Beachgoers Push Stranded Great White Shark Back into Ocean: 'It Was So Helpless'
"That’s not even something you put on a bucket list because it’s just so unbelievable," one of the rescuers said of the experience
A group of beachgoers in Massachusetts stumbled upon an unexpected sight: a beached great white shark.
On the afternoon of Friday, Aug. 16, Liza Phillips was enjoying the day at Nantucket’s Low Beach when her father spotted what he thought was a whale thrashing in the waves, the Nantucket Current reported.
The father-daughter duo was playing catch when he saw the beached creature and paused to say, “Oh, there’s a beached whale!” Phillips recalled to the outlet.
“I grabbed my phone and started sprinting down the beach,” the California native recalled. As she approached and realized it was a great white, not a whale, she thought to herself, “Oh my god.”
Related: Shark Attacks 4 Texas Beachgoers on Fourth of July, with Report of 1 Suffering 'Severe' Bite
"You think of a great white as a predator, a beast, a monster," she told Boston outlet WCVB-TV. "But watching it in that position, I was like, 'Oh my God, this is really sad.'"
Though the largest predatory fish on the planet, great whites are "not hostile towards humans, and they don't consider us food," per the International Fund for Animal Welfare. However, the organization notes that they are "still dangerous to be in close contact with."
Faced with an unusual and shocking situation and unsure how to proceed, Phillips paused for a moment and then realized she had to help the shark back into the ocean.
"I want it to survive," she recalled to WCVB-TV, adding that she "could tell it was really in a weakened state."
"It was so helpless, we were thinking it was going to get back in itself but it was completely beached," she explained to the Nantucket Current. "We said we have to step up and try to help."
Fueled by adrenaline, Phillips and another individual pushed the flailing shark back into the water.
"Definitely, there was some adrenaline involved," Phillips said of the great white rescue.
"I could tell it was not OK, and just giving it a shove and immediately running out does not feel crazy to me because there was no way it was going to turn around and bite my leg off," she added to WCVB-TV.
With a few gentle pushes from the duo, the shark returned to deeper water before swimming off, footage shared by the Nantucket Current and CBS Boston shows.
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After pushing the creature back into the ocean, Phillips can be seen covering her mouth, seemingly in shock, as she runs away from the scene.
"Touching a great white? That's not even something you put on a bucket list because it's just so unbelievable," Phillips said.
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