WELLFLEET – A thresher shark washed up on a Cape Cod beach this week.
The New England Coastal Wildlife Alliance received numerous calls about a possibly live thresher shark that stranded on the Outer Cape Tuesday. They posted photos of their response on their Facebook page.
The reports came from Mayo Beach in Wellfleet, which saw another one of these in 2016.
The NECWA said the 14-foot male shark that washed ashore on Mayo Beach earlier this week died before they got there.
A necropsy was conducted, but the Alliance said this type of stranding isn’t unusual in New England, and that at this time of year, thresher sharks are trying to navigate to warmer waters south. Like many marine animals, they said this shark took a wrong turn and wound up in Wellfleet’s inner harbor.
Other thresher shark washups in recent years have also included First Encounter Beach, Eastham in 2022, and last year on the South Shore at Duxbury Beach.
By Jim McCabe, CapeCod.com NewsCenter
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