- Three dead sharks washed up on shore in the Coastal Bend this week
- In Port Aransas and on Padre Island
- Locals raising concerns about why so many are washing up around the same time
Three dead sharks were spotted washed up on the beaches of the Coastal Bend this week. The first dead shark was found and posted on Facebook by resident Marvin Orellana on Jan. 3rd. It was a five-foot Black Tip Shark with a large open wound on its torso.
"You don't see a shark that big washed to shore often in my opinion," Orellana said. "Maybe fishermen caught and released the shark but I can't be one hundred percent."
Orellana was surprised to come across the shark on his daily walk down to Padre Island National Seashore.
He shared a photo of the shark in a Port Aransas Facebook group, which then led to two more locals adding pictures of two different sharks that they came across washed up on the beach a couple of days prior in Port Aransas and one near Bob Hall Pier on Padre Island.
Many people were commenting on their concerns on the post about why this is happening all at once and if it is hazardous to people on the beach.
Texas Parks and Wildlife Game Warden Captain Ben Baker said "Right now, we don't know of anything or are concerned of anything that might be causing these sharks an unnatural death.”
He contributes to the dead sharks washing up to there being a large number of fishermen out around the holidays.
"What it appears to be is that we've got a busy kind of two-week holiday weekend. And with that being said, we've got a lot of fishermen out there. And these sharks were most likely the result of maybe being a little too stressed out whenever they were caught," Captain Baker said.
People were wondering if the shark that Orellana found was bitten by another shark.
“It’s always possible that a bigger did prey upon them. And it's very most likely that the sharks were already dead,” Captain Baker said.
Dead sharks do not pose a safety hazard to people on the beach.
Texas Parks and Wildlife believes that these three sharks washing up was a coincidence and that there is currently not a larger issue at stake. TPWD is going to continue to monitor the situation and see if any more sharks continue to wash up on shore.
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