ARCTEKJim

BITES DUST: This shark, apparently suffering after a collision with a motorboat, beached itself again yesterday.

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September 3, 2007 -- The shark that gave a "Jaws"-like scare to swimmers at Rockaway Beach had been struck by a motorboat a few days earlier - and yesterday, it returned to shore and died.
The 6-foot thresher shark, which had been returned to the water by beachgoers after swimming ashore Saturday, beached itself again at around 6 a.m. and died before animal-rescue workers could come to its aid.
"It's sad, yes, but I think it was kind of inevitable," said Hans Walters, a shark researcher at the New York Aquarium. "If a thresher shark comes to shore repeatedly and swims toward the beach, there is something wrong."
It turns out the fish - a relatively harmless variety that rarely attacks humans - had been hit by a pleasure boat Thursday in Jamaica Bay.
Matt Meagh, 67, said a fisherman who saw the collision told him and his pal that "it was a loud thud, a very severe, crashing impact."
Meagh, who was also fishing, later saw the shark floundering as it swam in circles near his own boat.
"You could see it was struggling," he said.
Meagh's fishing buddy, John Murray, 62, said, "I spotted the fin, and I was thinking, 'Oh, my God! There's a shark in Jamaica Bay!'
"Then it hit our boat twice, head first. It scared me.
"The first thing that came to mind was Sheriff Brody's famous line from 'Jaws,' 'You're going to need a bigger boat!' "
Murray and Meagh didn't think about the shark again until reading about it washing up in the Rockaways in The Post yesterday.
"I didn't think it would make it through Thursday," Meagh said.
Meanwhile, beachgoers were back in the water after the Parks Department disposed of the shark's carcass.
"It's safe to go in the water," said chief lifeguard Kenny Bledsoe. "The shark is gone."
Will Oscar Busarto, 11, who saw the shark Saturday, said, "It was really big and kind of scary."
"It's kind of sad that it died, but then again, I don't want to get bit."
Peyton Regan, 10, said, "Maybe he had a mommy somewhere out here."
Walters, the biologist, said shark attacks are rare, especially in New York City, which has had six reported since 1650.
He said the only danger the thresher posed was if someone stepped on its razor-sharp teeth. He was sorry to hear it had perished, saying, "At least we have confirmation the poor thing isn't out there suffering

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