Maine
Fishermen record close encounter with great white shark off Boothbay
Ashley McLennan and her husband, Shaun, of South Thomaston were fishing off Boothbay this week when their sternman, Ryan Feener, saw a dorsal fin poke above the water that he at first assumed was a porpoise.
It was not a porpoise.
It was something far more dramatic: A great white shark devouring a seal, within feet of their boat. The shark lingered for several moments near the boat, seemingly unbothered by the human presence. At one point, a chunk of seal floated to the surface. The shark’s loitering allowing the crew to capture stunning video of the Wednesday, June 25, encounter which they shared with the Midcoast Villager.
“We were pretty surprised,” said McLennan. “It was terrifying and thrilling.”
Fortunately, they were already in a bigger boat. All three of the crew were in their main boat, leaving no one in the dinghy that towed the other end of their seine.
McLennan, it turns out, is something of a sharkophile and even has an app on her phone that tracks tagged sharks. She’s seen occasional shark pings in the waters off Midcoast Maine over the years, including one shark named Penny that she tracked for a while, but she never expected to see one so close.
“That was the first time we have ever seen one. It’s something I always hoped we would get to encounter, but never thought it would actually happen,” she said.
Two New England scientists who are authorities on white sharks — Matt Davis with the Maine Department of Marine Resources and Greg Skomal with the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries — confirmed to the Villager that the animal in the video is indeed a great white shark.
Walter Golet, a professor at the University of Maine’s School of Marine Sciences, who has participated in shark research with both, brought the video to their attention after he was contacted by the Villager.
The fact that the shark swims right up to McLennans’ boat shows how “curious” white sharks can be, said Davis, who has tagged white sharks and studies highly migratory species for the state. The shark’s sex can’t be determined from the video, but its size indicates it’s probably a juvenile, he said.
White sharks have not been studied in depth in Maine since they have historically been more common in the waters off Southern New England, especially around Cape Cod. That could be changing, however, as Maine’s booming seal population may be drawing more sharks further north.
“We know white sharks which move through and use Cape Cod waters are also using Maine coastal habitat to some extent, with a substantial number of white sharks which were tagged there (thanks to Greg and his collaborators) detected on Maine DMR receivers,” Davis said.
Maine’s first-ever fatal shark attack on record occurred in 2020, when a 63-year-old woman was attacked while swimming with her daughter off Mackerel Cove on Bailey Island in Harpswell. A tooth recovered from the victim confirmed it belonged to a great white. The unprecedented attack prompted the state to step up its research efforts into white sharks, whose behavior in the Maine had previously been poorly understood.
Davis and his colleagues just published early findings from that effort in a peer-reviewed academic journal in March.
“While significant progress has been made to characterize life history patterns, movement ecology, and regional estimates of abundance of white sharks,” they wrote in the introduction to their paper, “patterns of spatial distribution remain relatively unknown in the northern Gulf of Maine.”
The study tried to change that, using acoustic sensors that could detect sharks previously tagged off Cape Cod and Hilton Head, South Carolina. It tracked 107 tagged white sharks, with their numbers peaking between July and September, including multiple detected in “close proximity to several of Maine’s western beaches” and islands.
Still, the researchers caution, they’re playing catch up, and their data is incomplete. Notably for Midcoast and Down East residents, their sensors were mostly concentrated in the western Gulf of Maine, off Southern Maine, so “future research should include expanded receiver coverage in eastern Maine and the use of additional tagging technologies.”
Seals populations, after being devastated in Maine and other parts of New England, have been booming since coming under federal protection in the 1970s. And sharks, which are also now federally protected, follow their prey. Younger sharks prey mainly on fish, squid and smaller sharks, but they transition to larger prey, like seals, as they reach maturity.
Globally, white sharks are deemed “vulnerable to extinction risk,” but in the western North Atlantic, which includes Maine, research suggests “a slow state of recovery,” according to Maine DMR.
Still, experts say swimmers and paddlers in Maine should not be overly concerned.
“Unwanted shark encounters are exceptionally rare for your average ocean recreator,” said Davis, before advising general safety protocols: Stay close to shore, swim and paddle in groups and avoid swimming near seals or schooling fish.
The Florida Museum of Natural History, which administers a major database of shark bites, notes that wasps, snakes, bees and lightning strikes, not to mention car crashes and drowning, are responsible for far more fatalities every year than sharks. There was only one fatal shark attack in the U.S. in 2024 and some years see zero.
Notably, perhaps, June 20 was the 50th anniversary of the release of “Jaws.”
This story appears through a media partnership with Midcoast Villager.
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This story will be updated.
The Maine Department of Transportation is moving to slash up to $400 million in projects from its agenda, a shocking and abrupt cutback that is rattling the state’s construction industry at the start of building season.
Roughly $50 million across six pavement projects have already been delayed, according to a memo exclusively obtained by the Bangor Daily News. The agency plans to cut or delay another $150 million in bridge, highway, intersection and multimodal projects later this month. A further $200 million or more in cuts are planned in the next three-year work plan.
Those figures were outlined by Transportation Commissioner Dale Doughty in the May 18 memo to Gov. Janet Mills that has since circulated widely in the transportation sector, which has been getting drip-by-drip details on the wide scope of the cuts over the past three weeks.
It comes at the beginning of the state’s relatively narrow construction season. Companies have hired workers and ordered materials for projects they expected to begin this summer. The severity of the transportation budget problems was not raised to lawmakers during the 2026 legislative session.
Kelly Flagg, executive director of the Associated General Contractors of Maine, called the shortfall “deeply troubling” in a statement.
“We stand ready to work with policymakers, stakeholders, and industry partners to identify both immediate and long-term solutions,” Flagg said. “Maine cannot afford to fall further behind.”
Insiders saw this first.
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The cuts stem from a structural funding gap of at least $130 million in the state’s current work plan, according to Doughty’s memo. Losses are magnified because state money from the gas tax and other revenue sources is matched by federal funds. Lawmakers have long grappled with politically difficult long-term problems with the state’s transportation budget.
A Mills spokesperson said Wednesday morning that the administration was working on a response to questions from the BDN. The department says it needs roughly $240 million more in state capital funding annually to maintain the existing system, and that anything less than $200 million will erode it over time.
Doughty’s memo the only near-term solution is a series of bonds beginning as soon as possible. Lawmakers would have to return to Augusta to authorize that if one is going to appear on the November ballot.
The BDN Opinion section operates independently and does not set news policies or contribute to reporting or editing articles elsewhere in the newspaper or on bangordailynews.com
Michael Capeci is the former chairman of the Bangor GOP.
Let’s be honest about Maine’s current state.
For many families, the cost of living has become unsustainable. Housing is out of reach for many young people. Energy bills keep rising. Many small businesses are struggling under taxes and regulations that make it harder to grow. Rural hospitals are under strain and despite years of increased state spending, the results are not showing up in people’s daily lives.
Concurrently, Maine continues to lose young workers to other states. That is not a statistic, it is a warning sign.
To me, the question in this Republican primary for governor is not about slogans. It is whether we continue with a political approach that has failed to reverse these trends, or whether we nominate someone with new ideas. I think that someone is Owen McCarthy.
Owen is not a political insider. He is an entrepreneur from Patten, a small town where opportunity is not assumed, it is built. He grew up in a working-class family, became the first in his family to graduate from college graduating from the University of Maine, and founded MedRhythms, a healthcare technology company focused on neurological treatment.
He didn’t just talk about opportunity. He built it. That distinction matters, because Maine’s problem is not a lack of debate it is a lack of results. We have seen the trajectory: higher costs, slower growth, and a steady outmigration of young workers. I believe Owen McCarthy represents a break from that pattern.
His Maine 2040 plan focuses on creating 50,000 new jobs in sectors where Maine has real advantages — maritime and defense, advanced forest products, and life sciences. These are export-driven industries tied directly to Maine’s workforce, geography, and institutions. What sets Owen apart is not only what he proposes, but how he approaches governing.
He prioritizes modernizing permitting so projects do not stall. He supports using technology to reduce costs and increase efficiency. He focuses on making it easier to build, hire, and expand in Maine.
That same practical mindset extends to healthcare. Expanding telehealth, strengthening EMS systems, improving provider flexibility, and shifting toward earlier intervention are not abstract reforms. They are system upgrades designed to improve access while controlling costs.
Maine voters consistently respond to competence. They reward candidates who understand problems and present plans to solve them. I believe they are tired of rhetoric that does not translate into results, and skeptical of politics that prioritizes messaging over execution.
Owen’s approach is grounded in solving the issues that shape daily life — affordability, healthcare access, job creation, and government efficiency. That is not just policy positioning. It is a governing model that speaks directly to voters.
Some will point to his lack of political experience. But I believe Maine’s core problems are not the result of insufficient political experience; they are the result of policies that have failed to deliver measurable improvement. Experience inside a broken system, by itself, is not a solution.
If Republicans want to win, this primary must be taken seriously. From my perspective, it is not about choosing a nominee for governor who can energize the base. It is about selecting someone who can compete in a broader electorate that is frustrated and looking for change.
That requires a candidate who can speak beyond the base, not by abandoning principles, but by demonstrating competence and a credible plan to address Maine’s challenges. I believe Owen McCarthy offers that combination. He represents a shift away from managed decline and toward economic execution.
This is not just another primary. It is a decision about whether Republicans position themselves to win Maine or whether they remain trapped in a cycle of repeating the same strategies and expecting different outcomes.
If Republicans want to compete for Maine’s future, they cannot afford to nominate a candidate who only motivates part of the electorate. They need someone who expands it.
I believe Owen McCarthy is that candidate.
And if the goal is to win Maine, then the choice should be unmistakable
The only notable change in the top-seven of the Varsity Maine baseball poll is that Gorham now has eight first-place votes, two more than last week. The order of the seven teams is identical. In fact, the only change in the top-seven over the past three polls is the swap at the top after Gorham’s win over South Portland on May 19.
Furthermore, Gorham, South Portland, Oxford Hills, Cheverus, Bangor, Mt. Ararat and Fryeburg have been ranked in the top seven for four straight weeks, and six of those squads have been among the top seven in every poll this spring.
Meanwhile, Scarborough is ranked for the first time since May 5, and Ellsworth and Thornton swapped spots.
The Varsity Maine baseball poll is based on games played before June 2, 2026. The top 10 teams are voted on by the Varsity Maine staff, with first-place votes in parentheses, followed by total points.
1. Gorham (8) 89
2. South Portland 79
3. Oxford Hills (1) 75
4. Cheverus 55
5. Bangor 42
6. Mt. Ararat 41
7. Fryeburg Academy 30
8. Ellsworth 27
9. Thornton Academy 25
10. Scarborough 12
Also receiving votes: Washington Academy 8, Monmouth Academy 4, Cony 4, Leavitt 2, Falmouth 2.
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