Scientists don’t know what killed this 25-foot gentle giant. Photo: Matthew Facey
Scientists are still trying to understand what happened to a 25-foot basking shark carcass found belly up off the coast of Cornwall, England Sunday.
According to a Facebook post, someone alerted the Cornwall Wildlife Trust Marine Strandings Network, the official recorder for all marine life strandings in Cornwall, that they had discovered the shark, and over the next two days, the organization coordinated with five volunteers to record the stranding.
“As a result 5 superb MSN volunteers – Jeff, Natalie, Chris, Ben and Annabelle – got to the site on Tues 25th April near Mevagissey to record this absolutely magnificent shark,” reads the post. “Nearly 8 meters long, and over 3 meters in girth, this male shark was in a significant stage of decomposition but never the less useful samples were taken for various research organizations and NGOs. And just look at those gill rakers! Fascinating.”
The basking shark’s cause of death remains unknown, but the hope is that samples taken by MSN volunteers will shed some light.
Concluding their post, MSN tries to make the best out of a strange situation. “From a sad event comes something positive as we can use these rare opportunities to learn so much more about these breathtaking creatures in our sea,” they said.
