‘Rare’ Shark Beheaded On British Beach Prompts Appeal Scientists To Help Locate It

Historian Dan Snow trudged through Lepe beach’s sand towards the dark shape in the distance. A rather cold day in Hampshire, southern England, he bundled himself up against the biting cold as he got closer to his prize. Looking out towards the ocean, none of the team behind him spoke as they tried to maneuver efficiently through the sand. Like many other countries, UK waters are home to numerous shark species. “Contrary to popular belief, sharks do occur around the coasts of Britain,” states The Shark Trust on their website. “In fact, we have over 40 species! Including some of the fastest, rarest, largest and most highly migratory in the world!” And while many living in this area know that sharks are in the water, many were stunned to see one washed up on the sand… dead.

Not only was that unusual, but the species itself was exceptionally rare to these northern waters.

UK Shark Trust identified the shark from photos posted on social media as a smalltooth sandtiger (Odontaspis ferox) shark. The large, robust shark is found in tropical and warm temperate oceans worldwide. A docile slow-swimming shark with a patchy distribution, it can often be found on submarine seamounts and ridges and around oceanic islands. Fish, squid, and crustaceans are their main food sources here. There is little information on the biology of the Sandtiger Shark, though scientists believe it is similar to the grey nurse shark (Carcharias taurus).

“Smalltooth Sandtigers are seldom encountered and considered naturally rare. In the Northeast Atlantic their range reaches to the French coast at the top of the Bay of Biscay. Making this report an exceptional one,” Shark Trust said in a statement. Determined to secure the “once-in-a-lifetime find in British waters” for scientists to further study it, Snow quickly made his way to the beach. But when he finally arrived to the body, he noticed something was off about the whole thing.

Literally, off. The carcass had no head, tail, or fins, believe to have been all chopped off by what Snow calls ‘trophy hunters’: “We went to secure the shark for science last night. But we were too late! The head, tail, and fin were grabbed before I [assembled] a big enough team to drag it off the beach to the nearest road.” Snow and local residents managed to drag the 2.4m shark’s carcass to a nearby road despite a “good chunk” of the body missing. He has since then appealed on Twitter for the return of the head, saying, “The scientists want to have a look at it and then it’s yours to keep.”

“The head in particular holds the key to unlocking intricate details of the shark’s life, even from before birth, so we’d welcome news of its whereabouts,” agreed Shark Trust.

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