A marine expert has expressed concern after dozens of dead sharks were washed up on a beach in North Wales this week. Around 25-30 small sharks were found scattered on the beach between Rhyl and Prestatyn on Tuesday (June 6) morning by a dog walker.
The small sharks were identified as starry smooth-hounds due to their speckled white spots. They are widespread in UK waters and mainly feed on crustaceans and shellfish and live in coastal waters at depths of between 5 and 200 metres, on gravel or sandy bottoms, and measure between 100cm and 150cm, weighing up to 4.8kg.
In the past other similar sharks have washed up on the beach but not in such large numbers. Marine experts visited the site to take samples but they were unable to as seagulls had scavenged at their remains, North Wales Live reports.
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Gem Simmons of British Divers Marine Life Rescue said that the shark strandings normally consist of around five sharks and to see around 30 of them washed up on a North Wales beach at the same time is "a cause for concern". She said that they were unable to identify the cause of the strandings but in the past it has been caused by illegal fishing nets.
Ms Simmons said: "I have never seen this number of strandings before and I've never seen it in this species before. Generally, what we see along the North Wales coast is lesser-spotted cat shark and it's not normally more than five at a time but this number of smooth-hound is not something I've seen before. It's my opinion that is a cause for concern.
"Most of the sharks have already drifted out with the tide by now. Ideally, they are part of a natural ecosystem and they provide a food source for many of the marine organisms when they drift out.
"The advice really from a public point of view is don't touch them and don't remove them, but more importantly don't let your dogs near them - if it's down to pollutants in the water you definitely don't want your dogs anywhere near them."
A Natural Resources Wales spokesperson said: "We are aware of the reports of starry smooth-hound sharks having been washed up on beaches near Prestatyn. It isn’t clear what has caused this but there could be various reasons.
"Dead sharks on the beach should not be handled by the public. We advise that members of the public contact British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR) (https://bdmlr.org.uk/) and the UK Cetacean Strandings Investigation Programme (CSIP) (https://ukstrandings.org/) if they find stranded animals.
"Marine fisheries in Wales are regulated and managed by Welsh Government and any reports about suspected illegal sea-fishing should be made directly to their Fisheries Enforcement Team (Fisheries-Intel@gov.wales)."
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