Record number of infected sharks washing up on Central Coast beaches
Officials with the Pelagic Shark Research Foundation say over the past few weeks, the Central Coast has seen multiple dead salmon sharks due to an infection.
A record total of at least 15 salmon sharks have been documented to have beached (dead/dying) along the California Central and North Coast over the past 4 weeks.
California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Senior Fish Pathologist and project leader Dr. Mark Okihiro reports that at least six sharks stranded up north at Trinidad State Beach three days ago.
All of the specimens have been juvenile or yearling pups aside from the MacKerricher State Park specimen which appears to be an outlier specimen being a 7 ft adult.
Officials say so far the specimens tested have all shown the pathogen infection associated with Carnobacterium, also noted by Dr Okihiro et al to be periodically causing strandings among thresher sharks and mako sharks off of California since 2013,
Genetic testing and other lab work up procedures are being applied to this seasons batch of coastal stranded salmon sharks, together with associated specimens of mako sharks and threshers sharks (and others) collected during previous 3 seasons of unusually high numbers of strandings characterized as epizootic die offs involving several causes linked with pathogens.
Other species including large numbers of fish (halibut and seabass) as well as huge numbers of estuarine sharks, skates and rays (associated with fungal and protozoal infections primarily) and at least 1 fungal infected white shark (1 of 3) that have washed ashore dead around the Monterey Bay area.
More info and updates pending release in keeping with the pace of the ongoing project and its numerous studies currently underway. State agency and CDFW and State Parks has redoubled its energies and focus four fold since the 2016 stranding event and subsequently record breaking 2017 season that involved thousands of sharks, rays, skates and fish lost to pathogen and pollution related events.
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