Amid record-breaking cold temperatures in the Northeast, a large shark washed ashore on a Cape Cod beach and became encrusted in ice.
The image of the “frozen shark,” as some are describing it on social media, provides a stark illustration of just how cold it has been.
The shark rests on one side, mouth agape and bristling with teeth, on a mostly deserted beach turned white by sub-freezing temperatures.
The image was captured Saturday afternoon by Amie Medeiros at Cold Storage Beach in Dennis, Mass.
View this post on Instagram
Experts have identified the shark as a porbeagle, a species similar in appearance to great white sharks. Porbeagle sharks can measure 12 feet and weigh about 500 pounds.
Despite the timing of the stranding, the recent cold spell likely had nothing to do with the death of the shark. (The air temperature was 10 degrees when Medeiros snapped the photo.)
As Cape Wide News reported, the image reveals a severe injury on the shark’s side.
John Chisholm, a Massachusetts-based shark researcher, tweeted that he was “pretty sure this is one that originally washed up last week and has been moving around with the big tides.”
Chisholm alluded to other mysterious porbeagle shark standings that occurred earlier this winter. “Unlike the others, this one is a male,” Chisholm added.
Medeiros told FTW Outdoors that as of Sunday morning nobody had arrived to collect the carcass. “It’s still there, stinky now, and people have taken its teeth,” she said.
