A shark initially described as a baby great white became stranded and died Monday morning at Roads End State Recreation Site in Oregon.
However, the shark has been identified by an expert as a salmon shark, which probably suffered from a form of meningitis.
Oregon Coast Today posted the accompanying photo on its Facebook page with these words:
"Found on the beach at Roads End this morning, a four-month old Great White Shark. Rangers say the mother might well still be offshore. Possibly a good day to skip the surfing…"
The post was shared more than 500 times.
Wrote Charles Sloat in the comments section: "Poor little shark I guess it will never be scary to any one. I wonder what happened to it?"
We shared the photo with Dr. Chris Lowe, who runs the Sharklab at Cal State Long Beach.
Lowe emailed back: "No, it's a baby salmon shark. Probably had meningitis.... BTW - the way you can tell it's a salmon shark is the really dark dorsal and white belly line above the pectoral fins. Also salmon sharks have two caudal keels (if you can see the tail)."
Apparently, meningitis is a serious issue for salmon sharks, and often leads to strandings.
Said Jim Rice, stranding coordinator for the Oregon Marine Mammal Stranding Network: "Salmon shark strandings are very common along the Oregon and California coasts this time of year and I know of at least three others within the last few days."
--Pete Thomas
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