Trophy hunters who a shark body after it washed up on a beach in Hampshire, have been urged to return the remains as it holds vital clues to the whereabouts of his endangered family. After a small 6-foot sand tiger shark washed up on Lepe beach in Hampshire on Friday, scientists and conservationists made plans to inspect the body, particularly the head and eyes, to track down its whereabouts and determine the paucity of information available on the beach. endangered species. But when they visited the site to recover the body, they found only the remains of a butchered carcass when trophy hunters, under cover of darkness, had removed its head, tail and fin.
Scientists and the local people of Hampshire have now issued an urgent request for the shark’s remains to be returned.
The species, whose range in the Northeast Atlantic normally only reaches the top of the Bay of Biscay, is classified as Vulnerable and rarely sighted.
Shortly after the body turned up, photos and footage of the creature were widely shared on social media, including by TV historian Dan Snow, who was asked to help preserve it.
Mr Snow said: “The head, tail and fin were caught before I assembled a team large enough to drag it from the beach to the nearest road.
“It’s not illegal to take parts from dead fish that have washed ashore, so there’s no judgement, but if you’ve taken the head, get in touch, let the scientists look at it and then it’s yours to keep. ”
He later added: “We went to secure the shark for science last night. But we were too late!
“Please, if you have the head, get in touch. The scientists want to look at it and then you can keep it.”
The rest of the body will be collected by the Zoological Society of London on Tuesday for examination. The Shark Trust, a charity, said it may never be possible to know the “exceptional” circumstances that led the shark to the Hampshire coast, but an autopsy on the carcass could provide vital clues.
Ali Hood, the director of Conservation, said the full carcass could be vital to “notice possible changes in the distribution [of the species] after a while”.
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The sharks only occasionally enter shallow water — preferring deepwater rocky habitats — to feed on small, bony fish, squid, and crustaceans.
They are listed as Vulnerable on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species and give birth to only two young every two years.
The species is believed to have declined by about 80 percent in European waters over the past 60 years, largely due to overfishing.
Populations of small-toothed sand tiger sharks are believed to have declined due to human activity. In 2022, a 3-meter-long small sand tiger shark washed up on the coast of Galicia in northwestern Spain for the first time.