Sea Leaves, Retrieves Large Dead Shark On LI Beach

September 23, 2007

Release from: NewsDay

QUOGUE, N.Y. - A sizable shark that washed up dead on an eastern Long Island beach has been swept back out to sea with the high tide.

Quogue Mayor George Motz says the 20-foot-long basking shark turned up around 8 a.m. Saturday. He says a police officer and the bay constable tried to haul the roughly 1,500-pound fish up the beach with a rope tied to a truck, but the carcass wouldn't budge.

The tide carted it away about an hour later.

Basking sharks are among the world's biggest fish, growing as long as 39 feet. But they feed on the tiny organisms known as plankton. Their name comes from their habit of appear to sun themselves at the sea surface.