Mystery surrounds dead Great White sharks

The second dead great white to wash up on the shore of North Sydney, Nova Scotia has experts baffled.

It’s thought that the dead great white is a six feet long juvenile female, the lifeless shark was discovered by locals and reported to the Marine Animal Response Society.

It’s uncommon for a white shark to wash up in this part of the world, so now speculation turns to what may have caused it to die.

Well, it wasn’t Jack the Ripper, but tests will now be carried out to see if it was from natural causes, from being caught in commercial fishing gear or by hunting close to shore.

The white shark discovery is the second in over a week (it’s happened before) with a 900-pound shark estimated to be aged 25 years old washing up on a New Brunswick beach.

This iconic species of shark is endangered and is strictly protected, even in death, so no one can even touch it without a permit or take away any of its parts.

Real-life Matt Hooper – just with less double denim – Kristian Parton is a marine biologist and shark scientist, who is also the host and creator of YouTube shark phenomenon Shark Bytes. He said: “Shark strandings sadly do happen, although to get two together in such a quick space of time in the same area is quite rare. By all accounts, the necropsy of the first individual came back with no untoward findings, which would suggest disease isn’t spreading between individuals.

Although I would wait until the necropsy results return from the second individual before jumping to any conclusions. It could simply be due to the sharks feeding around seal colonies in shallow waters and getting caught out by a receding tide.”

Hopefully, great white sharks can stay protected alive in the water, and not protected dead on the shoreline.

Words by Dean Newman

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