Masset resident Paul Martin got the surprise of his life last week when he came across a huge shark washed up on East Beach, near the Oeanda River.
Mr. Martin was driving his quad when he spotted the enormous creature, which he estimates was about 11 feet long and had not yet started disintegrating.
He turned the shark over with his winch and cut the jaws out with his ax, retrieving no less than 89 teeth, some of them more than an inch long. When he got back to Masset, he described the animal and showed the teeth to several fishermen, who told him it was probably a white shark.
"These are savage animals, really attacking human swimmers, sharks, sea otters, seals and other large animals and small boats", says 'Pacific Fishes of Canada', which adds the sharks have strayed into the north Pacific and have been found off the east coast of the islands in the past.
Mr. Martin said he's lived here for 30 years and has never seen anything like it.