A live, four-foot shark has washed ashore on Rehoboth beach, according to reports.
According to the News Journal of Wilmington, Colby Beaumont snapped photos of the shark on Rehoboth Beach on Friday May 10 using a smartphone. After looking at the photos, state environmental officials said that the animal resembled a smooth dogfish shark.
Beaumont claims that he saw the shark come out of the ocean at Rehoboth beach and scamper onto the sand. He tried to drag the shark back into the ocean but gave up due to its weight.
"I was like, 'Oh, my God!' " Beaumont, 27, of Rehoboth Beach, told the Journal. "I didn't know what to do. I couldn't get it back in the ocean, it was so heavy."
The shark eventually swam away after another patron helped drag it back into the water.
"It swam away. We made sure it didn't come back up," Beaumont said.
The Lewes-based Marine Education, Research and Rehabilitation Institute has a program to rescue stranded seals, dolphins, sea turtles and whales. The Institute did not receive a report regarding the shark but would not have acted if they had, since sharks are not part of their response effort.
In a case similar to Rehoboth Beach, a large number of dead whales have been washing up in the Patagonia region. The deaths are currently a mystery, with some believing that they are being caused by birds that consume whale blubber. Neither infectious disease nor toxins have been pinpointed as reasons for the whale deaths.
