OK, so it wasn't that bad. The shark was rather toothless, if a bit large.Seems a 20-foot-long shark washed up on Gilgo Beach, on New York's Long Island recently. That's a big fish, and the people on the beach at the time all had to have a look.
Turns out they could have a look with impunity since the shark was dead at the time. Even though the finned swimming machine weighed a ton, it wasn't a threat because it was no longer breathing.
More people had to have a look once they discovered that the shark was dead. Surely a few Jaws jokes were bandied about. Surely some fearless New Yorkers could be heard to say it was sad that it wasn't a great white after all, as if "Where's the thrill in that?" were the proper response to the beach-prone funeral of one the planet's largest seagoing creatures.
This was a basking shark, the second-largest fish in the world (after the whale shark, of course). This one wasn't basking in the sun, though. It had lived its life and then lost it. Such living in the waters off the cost of Long Island is common for that species; such last-gasp activity is not so common. Marine biologists plan extensive examinations to determine cause of death.
Basking sharks eat plankton and other small, rather harmless creatures of the not-so-deep. The typical basking shark, although sporting a huge fin and giant mouth, has no teeth so isn't really of a primary danger to humans intelligent enough to avoid getting trapped in the shark's mouth. (We can still be gummed to death or swallowed whole.)
Plans now call for the shark to be buried in sand dunes near its final resting place, where the deceased can finally bask in the sun.
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