Beached

After having always seen only already dead or, as in one case, dying sharks down at the beach of Hastings, the events of yesterday provided quite a pleasant change.

The weather was just right for a peaceful and interesting walk along the sea, i.e. windy and rainy, and while I was looking for and picking up egg cases (got my first small-eyed ray (Raja microocellata)!), I came across a small, seemingly dead shark at Rock-a-Nore. It lay right at the edge of the water and when I got closer I recognised it as a small-spotted catshark (Scyliorhinus canicula), who are pretty much the Bambis of the sea. It was about 25 to 30 cm in length, meaning that it was not fully grown yet as the species has an average length of 60 to 80 cm.

However, this time I was in for a surprise because suddenly the mouth of the small-spotted catshark, who had been completely still up until now, opened, giving me a not so small adrenalin rush. Due to its size, there was no need to bother with gloves for protection for which I was grateful as it spared me valueable time, even more so because I had no idea for how long the little fellow had been out of the water already. So I took the small shark and, remembering that one must not throw a shark or any other fish in the water, I walked it back into the sea. But first I hold it into an incoming wave, so that fresh water and oxygen could flow through its gills. Then, after a few more steps, I put it into the water.

However, just a few moments later the catshark landed on the beach again due to the strong inbound waves (it was high tide). This meant, I would have to get it into at least slightly deeper water which would help it to get underneath the waves. Another option would have been to get the poor fellow to the eastern end of the beach and into the water behind the concrete wall for the water was deeper there.

But I really wanted to avoid just dropping the shark into the water (again, because one must not do this), which I would have had to do in this case. And I did not exactly fancy walking on the wet (i.e. probably slippery) wall towards the edge of the water as I found the waves too intimidating. Safety first, after all.

So, I picked the fish up again and repeated what I had done before, holding it into an incoming wave. When I then placed it into the water, I did not release it just yet but moved it back and forth. This I did in case it may have been somewhat under shock after being thrown out of the sea, to give it a bit of time to collect itself. Otherwise it might have become a plaything of the waves all over again. I read about the moving back and forth part just recently in an article by the National Geographic ("How to Rescue a Great White Shark on the Beach") and it is "to prevent rigor mortis and circulate oxygenated blood".

Well, by now the small catshark had become rather lively, which seemed to be a good sign, so I let it go. Afterwards, I stayed a bit longer on the beach and for a quarter of an hour or maybe longer I kept my eyes open for the shark in case it might beach again. But I did not see the little one again, so hopefully it was able to get away and survived.