sharks in New England waters

Front page headlines on the Newburyport daily News shouts, "Sharks spotted off New England Shores".
As I recall, about this time of year every year, the newspaper boasts a headline similar to this. We live by the ocean and the ocean has sharks.
Period.
Although it is rather exciting to see them.
As I looked at the photo in the paper my first thought was, "oh, it's a basking shark".
Sure enough, two basking sharks have been identified off the coast of Maine. Last year one was spotted off of Salisbury beach near the mouth of the Merrimack.
On June 7th 1998 dive # 239, between salt and milk island on the way to the Wreck of the Chelsea between the two light houses we saw what looked like a big log floating in the water. It was an overcast grey day and I wasn't expecting much from the day's dive but what had appeared to be floating flotsam was actually a 30 foot basking shark. I put my wetsuit on in Olympic record time and I was in the water with dive mate Pete.
Holy shit, batman.
It was thrill of a lifetime.
The water was murky so when the shark appeared with it's mouth open filter feeding heading straight for me.
It was pretty dam close.
Matter of fact I touched it and "his' skin felt like sandpaper.
I think it was just Pete and myself in the water with this behemoth. When I looked up to the boat screeching with delight I could see the boat slightly leaning to the side with crew and passengers watching the event.
Who said diving in New England was lame and you never see anything worth while?
That day of diving was the total balls.
I am also thrilled to bits when I see schools of dogfish sharks when I am diving. They are small curious sharks .
On August 8th 2009 dive #777, I was diving at the breakwater with Jackie K and Andy. We dropped to about 50feet in which there was a wicked thermocline (temp was about 42F) We were surrounded by at least 100 nosey dogfish. It was pretty exciting. They seem to come out of nowhere. Another great day of diving in New England.
Occasionally at the end of summer we see ocean sunfish.
Sometimes boaters mistake them for sharks since they usually have a big ol' fin flopping side to side on the surface. They are odd creatures because they look like a shark or a big fish cut in half with a little puckered mouth. They can be quite large but they are totally harmless.
You just never know what you will see when you dive here.