Salmon Shark Washes Ashore - Pacifica California

Often mistaken for baby white sharks, salmon sharks (Lamna ditropis) occasionally wash ashore along the coast of California. This one was just a pup, if you want to see the adult version you need to find yourself in Alaska in August during the prime time feeding event for these 10 foot long cousins of the great white:

Monday Aug 23, 2010. 1st hot day of the summer in Pacifica, CA. It's around 7pm and it's too nice to go straight home after weeks and weeks of fog. We go walking along the waterfront in the West Sharp Park neighborhood, near the Pacifica Pier. All of sudden, everybody notices something that looks like a seal coming in with the tide. But it's not a seal.

Great White shark washes up on beach - Australia

Sad news from Australia this week as a beached and eventually de-jawed white shark was documented:

THE sight of a shark washed up on a stretch of sand locals call Hungry presented more than a few challenges for professional photographer Ruth Fahey. And it wasn’t just any shark, it was a great white, no less!

Ruth grabbed her camera phone and captured something few Coffs Coast locals have ever witnessed.

“I was walking along Hungry Head Beach on Friday morning when I stumbled across the shark, well out of the water in the high tide zone,” Ms Fahey said.

Then the bizarre and nerve-jangling rescue attempt began as two men attempted to haul the ocean’s top predator back to safety.

“As it was threshing about, they tried first to dig the sand away beneath it to refloat it but ended up man-handling it back into the water. It was still very sluggish when they got to knee deep water so the surfer waded it out until he was waist deep.”

Complete story.