A great white shark has washed up on a beach showing injuries that appear to come from fishing equipment with experts left deeply concerned.
The shark, around eight feet in length, was found on a beach at Torrey Pines State Reserve in La Jolla, California, earlier this week.
The sea predator was found next to some abandoned fishing equipment including hooks and had died from its injuries.
A statement by the reserve said the female great white, a protected species, had “succumbed to injuries sustained from fishing activities”.
The nature reserve said: “Great whites are protected and must be safely released if accidentally caught.
“We took the opportunity to turn this unfortunate event into an educational opportunity for our visitors.”
Chris Lowe, Director of Shark Lab, estimates that around 40% of great whites in the Torrey Pines area are trailing fishing equipment.
As results of a necropsy from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife await, Lowe said there was “clear indication of jaw hooking and tearing through the jaw.”
The California State University Long Beach tagged and tracked the deceased juvenile shark on August 12.
Great whites are supposed to be protected from fishing like the type that condemned the Torrey Pines beast, but can fishers can easily claim that they intended the use of the large hooks to be for another creature.
Lowe told FTW Outdoors: “These fishers are pretty brazen and don’t think they’re doing any harm, but when you see the size of the tackle and how many are breaking off with 100 feet of line and lead trailing, you can understand why these sharks die from these interactions.
