Salmon Shark With Strange Parasites Rescued By Seaside Aquarium

By Keith Chandler

Seaside, OR - It was something the crew at Seaside Aquarium had never seen before. A salmon shark washed up in the Cannon Beach area Wednesday, still alive – which alone was a bit odd. But this salmon shark was covered in a dense layer of parasites in an unusual way.
 
The Seaside Aquarium is part of the Marine Mammal Stranding Network for the north Oregon coast, responding to baby seals that have wandered up, molting seals, injured sea lions and the like. But they also remove corpses of creatures that spill onto the beach from the tide.
 
Aquarium manager Keith Chandler said the shark was still living when they found it about 10 a.m. Wednesday. An hour and a half later it was dead, but first Chandler and others tried walking the four-foot salmon shark around the tank in order to get oxygen into its gills.
 
Salmon shark bodies washing up on shore are a bit unusual, but one that’s still alive is a bit more rare. What was really unusual about this shark was the number of parasites covering it, and the fact staff could not identify the type of parasite.
 
“I have never seen this many on a shark,” Chandler said. “And I’ve never seen this kind of parasite either. We don’t know what it is. He wasn’t a healthy specimen by any means.”
 
They have begun seeking input from other marine experts around the northwest.
 
This sickly condition, Chandler said, could have had something to do with it washing on shore.
 
This was the fourth salmon shark found by the Seaside Aquarium in the last six weeks. They have been showing up in the fall and late summer months in recent years, with apparent increasing frequency.
 
“It used to be we’d see one every other year,” Chandler said. “But I think that it’s not so much that there are more out there now, but rather that people know who to call. The education about that has gotten better lately, with the media and so on.”
 
2007 was a wild year for salmon shark strandings, as over 20 bodies were found on the upper half of the Oregon coast last year. Chandler said it’s likely the salmon sharks are closer this time of year, following salmon or other food sources.
Seaside Aquarium is on the Promenade in Seaside, Oregon. www.seasideaquarium.com.