Awesomeness! Thank you! Your picture is on its way to WDFW!
If anyone else knows of a sixgill carcass currently accessible on any regional beaches it would be amazing if you could share that information here perhaps? I’ve been chatting with Jeff C. And if we could gather a small tissue sample and freeze it along with as much info as you know about the shark (when it washed up, behavior if locals saw it before it died, etc..) that would be absolutely amazing and maybe we can get them to run the DNA and see what family group the dececdent was a member of. I’ll do the citizen science leg work if need be, and grab the sample if its too gross and stinky, just need to know where
I’m especially curious about the carcass that washed up near the Alki Lighthouse and then got taken back by the high tide before anyone was able to sample it. If anyone hears of it having washed up further down the beach maybe on private property it would be great to know so that we could grab a sample and see if maybe the Elliot Bay family group is returning or it was a roaming Three Tree/Redondo shark.
I’ve been following these strandings with interest all summer and if there is a common cause (mesh crab trap bait bags) it would really help to have any documentation we can to maybe get WDFW to weigh in to have them banned so they can’t hurt any more of our beautiful amazing sharks.