Sometime during the night of September 2, a young male basking shark apparently took a wrong turn and ended up stranded on the sand bar alongside the Lubec Channel on a rapidly falling tide. He was discovered by a clammer, who called Mackie Green, leader of the Campobello Whale Rescue Team, at 5:30 a.m. Green, whose boat is berthed in Head Harbour, called Chris Slay, who lives near the scene on Pleasant Street in the Brownsville section of Lubec.
     "I grabbed my binoculars and took off," says Slay, who was asked to confirm the species, first thought to be a minke whale. "It's an easy confusion," Slay says, because they look similar and can be about the same size. Slay owns Coastwise Consulting Inc. of Athens, Ga., and is a former fisherman and the veteran of many whale entanglement rescues. He hitched a ride with Maine Marine Patrol Sgt. Russell Wright, who had been contacted by a passing lobsterman. "I went back to grab some gear," he says, "and by the time I got out again, Tammy Simonson was heading over with a five‑gallon bucket." He adds, "That's what I like about this town. People see what needs to be done and they just do it."
     "Tragedy," is the first word used by Simonson when asked about what she saw when she got there. "He was thrashing around and struggling to get back to the water." Because of the contour of the sand bar, she says, the shark was actually moving into a more difficult position.
     Carol Dennison, Lubec Select Board chair and owner of the Downeast Charter Boat whale-watching tour company, and Ralph Dennison, the company's captain, arrived on the scene shortly after and helped others set up a bucket‑brigade, following Simonson's example of pouring seawater directly onto the fish's gills. "It was very much alive at that point," says Dennison. "We'd pour the water on and it would blink its eyes and move its tail, but as time went by it became less responsive." Low water occurred at about 8 a.m., and as luck would have it, at minus two feet it would be one of the lowest tides for the month.
     Despite the work of about 20 people, the shark expired before the tide returned sufficiently to allow it to be towed to deeper water. The towing operation itself was a struggle. It involved tying a large diameter hawser, provided by Dennison, to the animal's tail. The three‑inch line was needed to avoid injury to the 24-foot fish. A much longer line was tied to the hawser, which was then fastened to the New England Aquarium's Nereid, which in the strong current promptly ran aground, according to Dennison. Ultimately the shark was pulled free, helped by a combination of additional skilled help and rising water, but it was too late.
     The basking shark, according to Slay, is "the world's second-biggest fish, second only to the whale shark." It feeds on plankton and is harmless to people, although it is sometimes confused with the great white shark because of its size, which can reach over 30 feet. It has been exploited commercially, largely because of its fins and also its large liver, but only recently has it been spotted locally. "Changes in seawater temperature have pushed them out of their normal feeding grounds," says Slay. When told that local lobstermen had commented on the late start of the season, and also the late arrival of harbor seals in the Lubec Narrows, he replies, "It's the same deal. This is such a huge dynamic and so much changes."
     There have been four more sightings this year of basking sharks in the Bay of Fundy, says Slay, adding, "That's a lot." The International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) classifies the species as "vulnerable," chiefly because of historical overfishing.
     The following day a necropsy was performed on the animal. School children from the nearby Lubec Elementary School were brought out to witness what is hoped to be a once‑in‑a‑lifetime event, but the study confirmed that the animal was healthy at the time it made its wrong turn. A large group of tourists clustered about, giving Dennison concern about their lack of familiarity with rapidly rising water on the flats.
     "This has been an incredibly valuable experience for shark research," says Slay. A research team summering on Grand Manan performed the necropsy. "They now have tissue samples that were otherwise not available. There are probably at least two important research papers that will come out of this."
     Slay says, "If this had in fact been a minke whale, we probably could have saved it." He points out that whales, as mammals, breathe air naturally, while sharks - like all other fish - must obtain oxygen from seawater passing through their gills.
     Following the examination, the shark was towed out to the Grand Manan Channel, where it "became part of the food chain."