© ShutterstockGreat white shark strandings are very rare in South Carolina, as these animals are typically only winter visitors.
The 10-foot-long (3 meters) female was alive when locals saw it in the shallows on April 3. "There were multiple attempts to get the shark back in the ocean but it kept washing back ashore and eventually stopped breathing," Crystal Alden, a local who participated in the rescue effort, wrote in a post on Facebook.
In a series of pictures attached to the social media post, the shark appears to be stuck in a shallow pool. Its dorsal fin, eyes and gills are clearly visible, white the rest of its body is submerged. More photos show the shark lying in the back of a pickup truck with scratches to the underside of its mouth and sharp teeth exposed between protruded jaws. In the final picture posted by Alden, the young female hangs from a digger by its tail.
Biologists from the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources (SCDNP) and visiting scientists from Georgia Aquarium and Ripley's Aquariums, in Toronto, Canada, conducted a necropsy on the great white (Carcharodon carcharias) — but they could not determine the cause of death.
"A necropsy revealed nodules on the shark's spleen but no conclusive cause of illness; our biologists are sending off tissue samples for further analysis to hopefully learn more," SCDNR representatives wrote in a Facebook post on April 6.
Comment: It is unknown whether or not Pythia's Oasis is the "only seep of its kind." There could be similar seeps in that region of the CSZ. As such, seismologists should consider these seeps in future models of the CSZ.