There have been reports of several soupfin sharks washing up on east coast beaches during the past week.
Tlell biologist Lynn Lee said she saw four near Cape Fife, while another Tlell resident saw eight dead sharks north of the Tlell River mouth. The sharks are around five feet long and dark grey with a lighter belly.
"I don't think it's that unusual," Ms Lee said, noting that the same sharks washed up here in late summer last year. "It seems to be something fairly regular."
Soupfin sharks live along the west coast, ranging from California to Hecate Strait. At one point a fishery brought their numbers down, but the population seems to be recovering, Ms Lee said.
Although they are found in this area in the summer, the mystery is why they are washing up dead on the beach, she said.
"You never see dogfish washed up," she pointed out, unless they have been tangled in a net or suffered some other trauma. "I'm not sure why they're beaching themselves, that's not a normal thing."