{"id":321145,"date":"2026-08-14T09:45:01","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T09:45:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/321145\/"},"modified":"2026-08-14T09:45:01","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T09:45:01","slug":"almost-30-dead-sharks-wash-up-on-sands-of-jersey-shore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/321145\/","title":{"rendered":"Almost 30 dead sharks wash up on sands of Jersey Shore"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Nearly 30 dead dogfish sharks mysteriously floated onto the sands of the Jersey Shore Wednesday morning, stunning locals who stumbled upon the disturbing sight.<\/p>\n<p>The graveyard of marine predators popped up along a stretch of beach in Sea Isle City, according to ABC.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAll of a sudden, you start seeing a concentration of small sand sharks, and I thought, \u2018Well, this is odd,&#8217;\u201d said Michelle Greenling, who saw the creatures scattered across 10 blocks while out walking Wednesday morning.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.44428773;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"40335016\" width=\"852\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AdobeStock_505800271-copy-1.jpg\" alt=\"A spiny dogfish shark on the beach, being caught and released in the water.\" class=\"wp-image-40335016\"  \/>A spiny dogfish shark is caught and released on a beach. (Khairil \u2013 stock.adobe.com) Khairil \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n<p>Experts say the small sharks \u2014 between 3 and 5 feet long \u2014 swim in schools ranging from hundreds to thousands.\u00a0The cause of their deaths remains unknown.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA couple of things it could be,\u201d Stephen Nagiewicz, a marine scientist with Stockton University, told <a href=\"https:\/\/6abc.com\/post\/mystery-surrounds-dozens-dead-sharks-found-sea-isle-city-new-jersey\/19670608\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">ABC<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s something in the water, and they got sick and died. That\u2019s probably unlikely since people haven\u2019t been affected.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The dogfish, which typically weigh between 8 and 22 pounds, were most likely caught by fishermen and later dumped back into the ocean, Nagiewicz added.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey dumped them over the side or lost a net with all the things in there by accident, and all those sharks just floated up on the beach with the tides,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Dogfish are relatively common along the Jersey Shore and along the eastern coasts of the Americas.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:2.19742489;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"40335026\" width=\"1024\" height=\"466\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Screenshot-2026-08-13-at-72732-PM.jpg\" alt=\"A small, dead shark lying on a sandy beach.\" class=\"wp-image-40335026\"  \/>Dozens of sharks washed up on the Jersey Shore Wednesday morning. (6abc Philadelphia) 6abc Philadelphia<\/p>\n<p>They migrate north and closer to the shore in the summer and south and offshore in the winter, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/conservewildlifenj.org\/?species=mustelus-canis\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Conserve Wildlife New Jersey<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Because of their abundance, fishermen often call them \u201cjunk fish\u201d because they eat bait that targets other species.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>But some dogfish populations have declined over the years after becoming accidental by-catch for commercial and recreational fishermen.<\/p>\n<p>The New Jersey Department of Environmental Preservation did not immediately respond to The Post\u2019s request for comment.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nearly 30 dead dogfish sharks mysteriously floated onto the sands of the Jersey Shore Wednesday morning, stunning locals&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":321146,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7631,775,57,1066,9,11,10,16200,58],"class_list":["post-321145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-beaches","tag-jersey-shore","tag-metro","tag-new-jersey","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-sharks","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=321145"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321145\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/321146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=321145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=321145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=321145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}