Outer Banks – Round 1: Sharks & Smoke

So I’m just now posting an update from the beach last week. It was a good week; had lots of fun with Allie, Jen, and her family. The weather was insanely hot, and the smoke from the nearby Hyde County wildfire was ridiculously thick, depending on which way the wind was blowing (either bringing it towards us or pushing it away), but overall it was a great week.

One interesting thing that happened was a huge basking shark washing up on shore the night we got there. It was hundreds of pounds, but apparently only a baby, because the adults can get upwards of thirty feet long. This one was only eight or nine. It was still alive as it came ashore and drew quite a crowd on the beach.

The basking shark is apparently an extremely endangered species and efforts were going to be made to save it. However, a man on the beach, meaning only to end its suffering, slit the shark’s throat with his pocket knife. The Nags Head Beach Patrol and a nearby marine biologist were infuriated, but, unforunately, it was dying anyway. A huge backhoe came the next morning and buried it deep in the sand. Here’s a picture below; more will be uploaded to Flickr later. And, in less than two weeks, I’m headed back for another week!