DEC: Dead great white likely same one found on Quogue beach

State biologists are examining a dead great white shark that washed up Thursday in East Quogue and believe it’s the same predator discovered Wednesday on the Quogue shoreline before being swept out to sea.

A Southampton Town bay constable discovered the carcass Thursday morning on the oceanside beach near Dolphin Lane, according to Southampton Town Police and officials with the Department of Environmental Conversation. An initial inspection of the great white by DEC biologists led them to believe it was the same shark found Wednesday on the waterfront off Dune Road in Quogue, state officials said.

Quogue Village Police had responded Wednesday after a resident reported the dead great white. They arrived and took photographs of the shark but were unable to secure the carcass for a necropsy before it washed back out to sea.

On Thursday, DEC Environmental Conservation Officer Della Rocco along with the bay constable took the great white off the beach. The shark is about 6 feet 5 inches long and weighs about 250 pounds, according to the DEC.

DEC Marine Resources staff will perform a necropsy and additional testing. There was no obvious cause of death and a pathology test is pending, the DEC said.

Christopher Paparo, a member of the South Fork Natural History Museum’s shark research team, said researchers will take many measurements during a necropsy because it could help determine the weight of other similarly sized animals spotted at sea. They can also be used for genetic research. Many great whites can be found in local waters as the New York Bight, which encompasses the waters from Cape May, New Jersey, to Montauk, is a great white nursery ground, Paparo said.

Photos of the Quogue shark, its dark eyes open and mouth agape, depicted a nearly intact carcass, but the quality can quickly degrade, said Paparo, who also serves as manager of Stony Brook University's Marine Sciences Center. Although there was no obvious trauma, the animal could have got caught in a fishing net, died of natural causes or something else, Paparo said. It likely died before it washed ashore, he said.

“It's really sometimes a difficult thing, which of course gets frustrating because we want to know the answer,” he said. “And then we get the animal we're like, 'oh, there's no smoking gun.' ”

By Vera Chinese

vera.chinese@newsday.com@VeraChinese

Vera Chinese joined Newsday in 2017 after working as an editor for the East End lifestyle publication northforker and a general assignment reporter for the New York Daily News.