Why Are Dead Great White Sharks Washing Up On North American Beaches?
Scientists are stumped by a recent uptick in the number of dead Great White Sharks washing up on beaches in North America. For more than three decades the Canadian Wildlife Health Cooperator has kept tabs on the apex predator and never reported a deceased sharks washing ashore, but according to recent reporting from the New York Times, since 2023 five Great Whites have washed up along the eastern Canadian coast. Another four dead Great Whites have shown up on U.S. beaches, bringing the total to nine dead sharks.
What's unsettling about the shark corpses is that scientists can't seem to figure out what's causing the deaths. The sharks don't show any outward signs of injuries or trauma, ruling out the animals being either savaged by orcas (which has been recorded in South Africa and Australia), and they don't appear to be the result of being hit by a vessel. Most sharks have been found with full stomaches, eliminating the theory that they may have starved to death. But scientists have noticed unusual swelling in the brains of the sharks
'Three of these five seem to have the same potentially infectious disease affecting their brain,' Megan Jones, a Canadian veterinary pathologist, told the NYT. Scientists believe the deaths may be a result of meningoencephalitis, which is a condition where brain tissue swells. The working hypothesis is that the sharks' brains are inflamed, pressing against their skulls, which causes pressure that eventually leads to their ultimate demise. How they're contracting this ailment remains a mystery.
'I feel very strongly that there's something significant going on,' Alisa Newton, chief veterinarian for the shark research group OCEARCH, share with the NYT.
The the ocean warming and currents changing, figuring out what's causing the shark deaths may provide insight into the state of the sea and how even the mightiest of predators is being impacted.
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