A mysterious and disturbing discovery along the Torrey Pines coastline has left a San Diego hiker searching for answers after finding several dead leopard shark pups on a trail near Black\u2019s Beach.<\/p>\n
The discovery was made last Sunday along the foot trail next to the glider port in Torrey Pines. Emily Dean said she and friends came across a half dozen juvenile sharks scattered along the trail \u2014 well above the high tide line.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt just really, really broke my heart,\u201d Dean said.<\/p>\n
Dean said the pups were intact, partially covered in sand, with wet ground beneath them. The scene raised immediate concerns.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo puncture wounds fully intact just clearly laid there to suffocate and dry out in the sun,\u201d Dean said.<\/p>\n
The unusual placement of the pups \u2014 far from the shoreline and spread out \u2014 prompted questions about how they got there.<\/p>\n
Leopard sharks are known to give birth in shallow, warmer coastal waters this time of year. Seeking answers, NBC7 brought the details and photos to Professor Chris Lowe, a marine biologist at Cal State Long Beach.<\/p>\n
\u201cSomebody caught a pregnant female and was carrying her up the hill as they were doing that. She was aborting the pups,\u201d Lowe said.<\/p>\n
Lowe explained that leopard sharks reproduce through live birth, and under stress or threat, pregnant females can expel their young.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is a common thing that happens and sometimes if that happens in the wild some of those babies would survive,\u201d Lowe said.<\/p>\n
The theory could explain why the pups were found in multiple locations, as well as the sand and moisture surrounding them.<\/p>\n
Lowe added that leopard sharks are sometimes caught for food.<\/p>\n
\u201cProbably a fisherman caught it and thought there is a lot of good meat there. The question is was it caught in a protected area? Which would make it illegal,\u201d Lowe said.<\/p>\n
Dean reported the discovery to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and also contacted police through a non-emergency line.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt just feels like we should have more people down there protecting the wildlife,\u201d Dean said.<\/p>\n
While the circumstances surrounding the dead pups remain unclear, experts say the broader leopard shark population has rebounded in recent decades. Improved fishery management since the mid-1990s has helped stabilize their numbers, and the species is not considered endangered.<\/p>\n
This story was originally reported for broadcast by NBC San Diego. AI tools helped convert the story to a digital article, and an NBC San Diego journalist edited the article for publication.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A mysterious and disturbing discovery along the Torrey Pines coastline has left a San Diego hiker searching for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":235631,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[74,76,75,21810],"class_list":["post-240334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-torrey-pines"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240334","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=240334"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240334\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/235631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=240334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=240334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=240334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}