Washed Up Out of the Blue

— by Lin McNulty —

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“Ewwwwwwwwwwww. What is this?” That was what first attracted the attention of an Orkila staff member as she saw campers on the beach poking at something with a stick. It was a “sea monster” that washed up on the shore at Camp Orkila.

Orkila employee Jason Dean described it as a cartilaginous vetebra, 10′ long, with evidence of fins by its tail and by its side. “It was pretty deteriorated,” he said, “with four flippers or fins (fingers) and 6 gills on each side.” It also had plate-like structure on its back, an armor-plate hard shell thing on the back of its neck.

SeaDoc staff was called and came to have a look. They believe it to have been a six-gill shark, but because of the deterioration, there is no way to know definitely. They did not retrieve the specimen; it has since washed out to sea.

“Keep the children out of the water,” chides Jason Dean.

Photos courtesy of Katie O’Rourke.