It has been a busy week for marine experts at a popular Halifax-area beach, where both a marlin and thresher shark have washed ashore.
The Department of Fisheries and Oceans and the Department of Natural Resources confirm they removed the marine animals from Crystal Crescent Beach Tuesday. Both had died.
Ruth Burns and her son, Jeremy, discovered the dead shark just after midnight on Monday.
“I don't think we'd been there five minutes, my son goes, ‘Mom, I found a shark,’" says Ruth Burns. “It didn't have an odour or smell of anything, so we figured it was probably only there for a few hours."
DNR told CTV News the shark has been taken to a remote wooded area for disposal.
"I measured the length of it, the tail to the tip of the nose or the sword, and it was 11 feet. The body length was about eight feet," says DNR caretaker Richard Wentzell.
The marlin is in temporary storage at the Bedford Institute of Oceanography and is being preserved until officials figure out exactly what they're going to do with it.
This isn’t the first time some interesting marine life has washed ashore on Crystal Crescent Beach this summer. At least three Portuguese men o’ war have also been found on the beach
Heather Bowlby of the Canadian Atlantic Shark Research Lab says we usually see a few warmer-blooded fish when the Gulf Stream pushes closer to shore, but the amount this year is unusual.
"Whether or not species like a blue marlin or a thresher shark will follow the water up here, that isn't necessarily every year," says Bowlby.
With files from CTV Atlantic’s Bruce Frisko.
