LONG BEACH, Wash. — A 12-foot thresher shark washed ashore on the Long Beach Peninsula in southwest Washington over Labor Day weekend.
The shark weighed anywhere from 300 to 365 pounds when someone found it on the beach near Ocean Park, a few miles north of Long Beach, on Friday night, the Seaside Aquarium said in a social media post.
The shark was alive when it became stranded in the sand but died shortly thereafter, the aquarium said.
Volunteers and aquarium staff recovered the shark and scheduled a necropsy for the following afternoon. The aquarium also allowed the public to check out the deceased shark prior to its dissection.
"It is not very often that we get to see these large sharks and anything we can learn or educate the public on is a great opportunity," the aquarium wrote.
Upward of 50 people gathered to watch the necropsy, and several people were interested in the shark's distinctly long tail.
"The thresher shark uses its long tail to 'thrash' through schools of fish, stunning them, then swimming back through and eating the stunned fish," the aquarium wrote.
This is the second shark to wash up on the Long Beach Peninsula in the past few weeks.
On Aug. 18, another 12-foot thresher shark was found dead near Grayland Beach State Park, according to the aquarium.
So why are these sharks washing in?
"That is the million-dollar question and that is why it is important to be able to collect data and various tissue and organ samples," the aquarium wrote. "The one thing we were able to rule out was any fisheries interaction."