A pair of Maryland vacationers came across a dead hammerhead shark that washed ashore onto Fenwick Island, but there's more to this shark tale.
About twenty more - to be inexact. Not full-grown sharks but pups, according to witnesses who reported they saw the 10-foot shark giving birth after midnight Sunday around 144th Street in Ocean City.
Both Ocean City Police and Maryland Natural Resources Police responded to calls at the location, but their officers did not witness the births. Rather, the shark appeared to be dead.
"We showed up and spectators were helping the sharks," said Candy Thomson, a spokeswoman for Natural Resources Police. "We really had very little to do with it."
Thomson said the shark didn't beach itself but was hauled in by a fisherman. Officers contacted the National Aquarium, which responds to marine strandings in the region. However, people on the beach pushed the shark back into the water.
In an interview with The Dispatch, one witness described how spectators discovered the shark was giving birth and then rushed to get the pups back into the ocean as quickly as possible.
"They generally do give birth in shallow waters," said Thomson, adding that the pups probably have a 50-50 chance of survival since "they're generally on their own any way" after birth.
The mother shark was found Monday morning in Fenwick Island by Alex Stevens and Corbin Archie, both from the Baltimore area. The two were walking on the beach behind the Seaside Inn and when they noticed it wasn't moving, they pulled it to the shore. Archie says the shark was easily over 100 pounds.
According to National Geographic, "most hammerhead species are fairly small and are considered harmless to humans."
Town employee Bryan Reed says he believed it to be the first shark to wash ashore onto the island, though the town has dealt with dead dolphins, large fish and whales in the past. The hammerhead was buried deep in the sand near the dunes.
Reed says the cause of the shark's death was unclear.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.