A shark has been spotted wandering the streets of New Jersey. And it ain’t here for the vig, either.
With the powerful nor’easter storm battering the Eastern Seaboard over the weekend, floodwaters have poured into the perhaps unfortunately named town of Surf City, turning its suburban streets into aquatic thoroughfares.
Marine traffic obliged. In a viral video taken Saturday by a local resident, a shark — as in the fish, not the mobsters who enforce usurious loans— is seen swimming through the town like it owns the place. The shark’s dorsal fin, in cinematic fashion, even breaks through the surface of the water.
“Is that a little shark?” one person can be heard saying, almost in disbelief. “It’s coming this way!”
Fortunately, this is almost certainly no man-eater. According to Greg Skomal, a white shark researcher with the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, the shark in the video appears to be a smooth dogfish — “which is a very small, harmless shark that is common in those waters,” he told ABC News.
After patrolling the resident’s driveway, the shark reportedly started swimming toward Barnegat Bay, according to ABC, seemingly content with making its presence known.
A snowless nor’easter over the weekend has ravaged parts of the east coast, with New Jersey and New York among the hardest hit states, where both governors have declared states of emergency for specific locales.
Strong winds exceeding 60 miles per hour knocked trees over, killing a 56-year-old man in Brooklyn. Flooding was reported all over New Jersey, seeping into resident’s homes.
On the more lighthearted side of things, many an opportunistic kayaker has pounced on the chance to traverse their towns on narrow boats. An entire 19th century shipwreck was even unearthed by the storm. And now sharks, apparently, are enjoying the sightseeing occasion of a lifetime.
More on environment: World Braces for Nearly a Half Million El Niño Deaths