Large shark washes up on Cape Cod seaside: ‘May look like it’s smiling however sadly, it’s not’

An enormous shark washed up on a Cape Cod seaside this week, as researchers strive to determine what led to the shark getting stranded.

It has already been a really busy 12 months for basking sharks in Cape Cod Bay, and a few in the end wash up lifeless on seashores for a wide range of causes.

Earlier this week, shark researchers responded to Eastham’s Kingsbury Seaside for a 24-foot feminine basking shark that stranded.

“This basking shark may look like it’s smiling but sadly, it is not,” shark researcher John Chisholm wrote. “This poor particular person stranded on a seaside alongside Cape Cod Bay. There are loads of baskos round this 12 months and sadly some strand.

“Unlike marine mammals which can breathe out of water, once sharks are out of the water they’re in a race against time and tide,” he added. “Sometimes smaller sharks can be helped back into the water but when you’re the second largest fish in the ocean, whose weight is measured in tons, the odds are against you.”

This basking shark might appear to be it’s smiling however sadly, it’s not. This poor particular person stranded on a seaside alongside Cape Cod Bay. There are loads of baskos round this 12 months and sadly some strand. pic.twitter.com/lMnBwUb2O9

— MA Sharks 🦈 (@MA_Sharks) Could 20, 2025

Basking sharks are as much as 30 ft lengthy, and so they filter feed on plankton.

This stranded 24-foot shark doubtless weighed round two tons, which is about 4,000 kilos.

“We can’t physically remove them by hand, so we let nature takes its course,” Chisholm mentioned, noting that scavengers like coyotes, foxes and raccoons will decide at it.

The slow-moving sharks — which are sometimes mistaken for nice white sharks — have been noticed on some latest whale watches throughout the area.

“This has been a BIG year for basking sharks in Cape Cod Bay,” shark researcher Greg Skomal posted. “Sadly, when numbers are this excessive we regularly get experiences of strandings, like this one at the moment.

“Sharks strand for various reasons from illness to just bad luck,” he added. “This shark may have just been too close to shore when the tide went out and left it high and dry. We’ll perform a necropsy to see what we can discover.”

Researchers throughout the necropsy didn’t discover something that was clearly fallacious with the shark.

Given the situation in Cape Cod Bay, Chisholm mentioned he wouldn’t be shocked if the shark acquired caught when the tide went out.

“When the tide goes out fast, they’re basically screwed,” he mentioned.

NOAA scientists took tissue samples to additional examine any causes of loss of life.