A dead hammerhead shark washed up on the shore at Atlantic Beach on June 26, drawing a small crowd of more than a dozen beachgoers and prompting a speedy removal from a municipal crew.
The shark, estimated at around 8 feet in length, was deposited on the sand shortly after 10 a.m. after bobbing near-stationary in shallow waters for at least one hour.
The shark’s cause of death was not immediately confirmed, but it bore a still-bleeding wound just behind its head, possibly the result of a strike from a boat.
A pair of Atlantic Beach city workers dragged the shark from the surf with assistance from a volunteer and then used a backhoe loader to remove the dead shark, which extended beyond the 89-inch width of the loader bucket.
Are hammerhead sharks common in Florida?
Florida coastal waters contain hammerhead sharks of various varieties. According to the University of Florida’s Florida Museum of Natural History, the largest of these species, the great hammerhead, can reach a length up to 18 to 20 feet.
The museum lists a 991-pound fish caught in Sarasota as the world’s largest great hammerhead on record.
The exact species washed up at Atlantic Beach was not immediately clear.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Dead shark washes up on Atlantic Beach. How big was it?
Reporting by Clayton Freeman, Jacksonville Florida Times-Union / Florida Times-Union
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By Clayton Freeman, Jacksonville Florida Times-Union | USA TODAY Network
