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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Rash Of Shark Deaths Puzzles Scientists

Knight-Ridder

From Monterey to the Mexican border, young sharks have been mysteriously washing ashore periodically in California, startling surfers and leaving scientists scratching their heads.

Nearly a dozen dead and dying salmon sharks, a close cousin of the great white, have been found in the last few months, said Sean Van Sommeran, director of the non-profit Pelagic Shark Research Foundation in Santa Cruz. Researchers have noted the peculiar phenomenon before but say it’s more pronounced this year but can only speculate why, he said.

“With some regularity, there’s been a rash of strandings every spring,” Van Sommeran said. “This year there have been more than usual, and nobody knows why.”

Nine salmon sharks, about three to four feet long, have washed ashore this year in San Diego, Santa Barbara, Pismo Beach, Carmel and Monterey, Van Sommeran said. A 10th was snagged in a fisherman’s net.

Most were found by surfers who spotted them flopping in the waves, mistook them for baby white sharks and called authorities, Van Sommeran said. To the untrained eye, salmon and white sharks appear nearly identical, he said.

But unlike the great white, the fearsome fish that gobbled swimmers in the fictional blockbuster film “Jaws,” there are no records of salmon sharks attacking people, he said.

Van Sommeran and other local researchers are examining two of the specimens at the University of California-Santa Cruz’s Long Marine Laboratory to look for clues to their demise.

“We’re going to take tissue samples and look at stomach contents,” Van Sommeran said. “Everyone’s speculating. It’s more or less a lot of head-scratching.”

Theories range from pollution poisoning and self-strandings to running aground in pursuit of prey and simply natural death.

“I have no idea,” said Gregor Cailliet, a professor at Moss Landing Marine Laboratories and a leading authority on sharks. But he doubts the fish are stranding themselves.

“There are some fish that end up chasing fish and winding up in a place they don’t want to be,” Cailliet said. “That’s not stranding. That’s just inopportunely finding themselves in the wrong place.”