The body of a great white shark has washed up on a US beach after a spate of recent sightings.
Locals stumbled on the eight-foot long apex predator on the sands of Ocean Beaches in the Village of Quogue, Long Island, New York on Wednesday morning.
The monster was photographed and the sighting reported before the waves swept the killing machine back into the sea.
Images taken on the shore show the motionless giant with blood smeared around its mouth and its eyes eerily lodged open as it lays completely motionless in the sand, Fox News reports.
Speaking with the New York Post, shark expert Frank Quevedo said the dead fish is about half the size of a full-grown adult great white.
The executive director of the South Fork Natural History Museum Shark Research and Education Program added that the creature is likely between six and 10 years old - a youth or adolescent.
It was recently discovered the great white lives far longer than initially thought, for as long as 70 years in some cases.
Quevedo and his team are set to perform a post-mortem to learn how the shark died after first locating the carcass.
He told the Post: "Different species wash up on the beach quite often, but when it’s a vulnerable species like a great white we would perform a necropsy.
“A dead shark can provide more valuable data than a live shark."
He said the juvenile shark's corpse could provide a vast wealth of information and "critical data points" about shark conservation.
The museum is joined by New York's Department of Environmental Conservation on the case.
Quogue Village Police wrote in a press release: “At this time we are cautioning swimmers and boaters in the area to be aware of this ongoing situation, and to keep distance to allow the Law Enforcement to monitor this event."
Long Island has been the scene of a series of shark attacks this summer, including when a surfer's right foot was bitten off the coast of Fire Island.
Rockaway beach was shut down a day after the attack after a pair of sharks were seen prowling the waters.
Patrol boats, drones and helicopters will be deployed to police the waters around South Shore after the surge in shark-related activity.
