More than 50 sharks wash up on beach shore

WILMINGTON, N.C. (WECT/Gray News) – More than 50 small sharks washed ashore a small island on the coast of North Carolina Sunday.

A photo of the spiny dogfish sharks taken by Emily Bradford shows the animals along the entire shoreline.

Staff members with the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality investigated reports of the sharks at Masonboro Island Reserve but said no cause of death has been determined.

“The sharks had no visible injuries, and no fishing gear was present, though some were bleeding from the mouth or gills,” officials said.

Captain Trevor Smith with Gone Coastal Charters said the number of animals on the beach could be a clue about what happened.

He believes it’s unlikely the sharks died of environmental or natural causes since there were only about 50 animals on the beach. If their deaths had been related to a water quality issue there would have been many more creatures ashore.

Smith believes the sharks’ deaths were likely the result of some type of accident involving humans, water equipment or water vessels.

“I see that they are washed up on one tide cycle and not multiple tide cycles based on the tide line,” Smith said. “Also, they washed up inshore. Maybe a boat culled their nets anchored up in the inlet. Or they got caught in a low tide cycle and were trapped with no water. Then the tide rose and washed them out.”

Smith said it appears that this incident was species-specific.

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