If you were planning on doing any swimming in the Northern Atlantic this Summer you need to check out this photo of a half-eaten dolphin carcass and reassess your entire life. This upper half of a dolphin washed up on the shore of North Wildwood, New Jersey, a beach town that’s a mere 30-miles from Dewey Beach, Delaware. The dolphin that appears to have been devoured and eaten in half by a shark (sharks?) was discovered by a woman with her 4-year-old son, who will surely never go swimming again. Now feast your eyes on this:
Today In “Kyle’s Not Going In The Ocean This Year” http://t.co/huZ7PWi1Kj pic.twitter.com/ePuXomlDki
— Kyle Scott (@CrossingBroad) June 16, 2015
“”
When I first saw that picture my immediate reaction was “no chance in hell is that real!” But it is, it’s really real.
A half-eaten dolphin washed up on a beach in North Wildwood over the weekend.
Karissa Kerns, 44, of Northeast Philadelphia, told NBC10 she was visiting the 4th Street Beach Saturday with her mother and 4-year-old son around 9:45 a.m. when they noticed a fisherman reeling something in.
I thought it was a sea turtle at first,” Kerns said.
As they walked towards it however they realized what it was, a dolphin that appeared to be half eaten.
“The lifeguard flipped it over and you could see a shark had grabbed it and chomped right out of it,” Kerns said. “You could see the teeth marks and everything. It’s spine was completely severed. It wasn’t a full-sized dolphin and it wasn’t a baby dolphin, it was mid-sized. At that point my mom took my son away quick because he was freaked out about it.”
Kerns took a photo of the dolphin as lifeguards began to move the body.
One girl grabbed it and she carried it where the trashcans are near a sand dune,” Kerns said. “We left about 45 minutes after. When I was walking out of there it was gone.”
A member of the North Wildwood Beach Patrol told NBC10 they haven’t determined how the dolphin died but believe it was bitten by “something big.”
No shit it was bitten by something big. NBC Philadelphia consulted a marine biologist who suggested that it may be the result of a sand tiger shark bite, a pretty docile shark that has been responsible for ZERO confirmed human fatalities. But that’s just one man’s opinion. I could say that this dolphin was attacked by a great white shark, and because I said it then you can now use me as a source, and this is how rumors spread…
What do I really think happened? Chances are the dolphin died of natural causes and was later picked apart as it floated on the surface. Similar to the polar bears that eat whale carcasses on the beach, this dolphin’s injuries weren’t the result of just one shark attack, but rather many sharks picking it apart over the course of several days. Again, that’s just one man’s opinion and should be taken with a grain of salt.
If you were planning on swimming in Southern New Jersey or Northern Delaware though…Just think about this photo as you dip your feet into the water.
Shout out to @CrossingBroad for sharing this on Twitter