A mysterious cadaver washed up on Port Hardy shores last week.
The body was of a salmon shark that was first spotted the morning of Wednesday, Nov. 23, by local resident Norm Flanagan, who spotted the dead shark from his back porch.
"I seen something red, went down to see what it was," said Flanagan.
"How it got there I don't know," he said.
DFO officer Joe Humphreys mentioned that although salmon sharks are common in these waters, it is unusual for sharks to wash up on shore.
"It's the first one since I've been here," said Humphreys.
By the time DFO personnel were able to examine the remains, birds had pecked out and eaten the eyes, but the rest of the body was fairly intact with a few exceptions.
There was a mark on the top fin, the left fin was mostly split, there were reddish rash-like marks along the shark's underside, and a puncture resembling a bullet hole on the creature's back.
It is not known how the shark died. DFO personnel removed the large fish to perform a necropsy.
A DFO team collected the shark's remains for further examination.
This the third large marine animal to wash up at Port Hardy recently, the other two being a sunfish and a dolphin.