Ocean Sentry
Nine bonnethead sharks and two black tip sharks were found this morning washed up dead on Sand Dollar Island, a stretch of beach on Marco Island.
Water samples showed oxygen and salinity levels were normal, and the water was “typically colored,” Collier County pollution control specialist Rhonda Watkins said today. Red tide was not found in other samples collected Monday, she said.
Watkins said it is possible the sharks were netted and then dumped as bycatch, but the sharks did not wash up all in one place, Watkins said. Along with the sharks, beach monitors found four gafftopsail catfish and a stingray, she said….
