Possible Great White Clears Vineyard Beaches

EDGARTOWN, Mass. -- July 11, 2008— -- The island where "Jaws" was filmed hada real-life shark scare Thursday, when an unconfirmed sighting of agreat white forced the closure of two beaches.

South Beach on Martha's Vineyard was closed for a short time,and swimmers were kept out of the water at State Beach inEdgartown, the Massachusetts Department of Conservation andRecreation said.

A plane was dispatched to try to confirm the sighting, but noshark was spotted, said Lisa Capone, a spokeswoman for the stateExecutive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs.

In 1974, Steven Spielberg chose Martha's Vineyard for filmingthe movie version of "Jaws," depicting a series of deadly greatwhite attacks in the fictional community of Amity.

Shark attacks are extremely rare in waters off New England, butgreat whites have been known to occasionally prowl in the region.