For the first time, scientists found two top predators in a waterway in Washington.
Experts from Oregon State University said in a July 29 news release that they are now trying to figure out how a highly endangered soupfin shark and several broadnose sevengill sharks got to the South Puget Sound near Olympia.
There is a sea between Washington and British Columbia, Canada, called Puget Sound. It is at the southern end of the Salish Sea.
In August 2021, broadnose sevengill sharks were caught in Hammersley Inlet, which is in the southern part of Puget Sound. This was reported in a study that was released on June 26 in the peer-reviewed journal Frontiers Media.
Researchers were interested in these catches because a certain type of shark had never been seen in the area before.
The story says that scientists went out on a boat in the Hammersley Inlet to look for broadnose sevengill sharks.
They got information over 10 days in 2022 and 2023. Researchers say that during that time, nine sharks were caught.
The study says the sharks were named, weighed, and then released.
“This work is the first proof of a significant presence of these apex sharks in the Salish Sea,” the researchers wrote in the piece.
Discovered an endangered shark
A study published July 17 in Frontiers Media says that while scientists were looking for broadnose sevengill sharks in the Hammersley Inlet, they caught a highly endangered soupfin shark.
Also, the rare shark had never been seen in that area before.
“These results suggest that soupfin sharks are probably more common in the Salish Sea than was thought before,” the study added.
In the 1930s and 1940s, too many soupfin sharks were caught for their vitamin A-rich livers, according to a news statement from the university. The fish is a “key ingredient” in shark fin soup, which is how the soup got its name.
