Hundreds of dead sharks were found washed up on the beach tangled in a huge fishing net.
Around 200 sharks were found dead after being trapped in an abandoned fishing net that eventually washed up on the shore.
The horrifying discovery was made at Pembrey Country Park in Carmarthenshire by a dog walker.
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Experts were alerted after reports came in about a large net that had washed ashore, packed with sharks.
Investigators attended the scene on 23 May, as reported by Need To Know.
The net was found to contain around 200 dead Tope sharks – who are critically endangered.
The net included both adult males and females with several smaller cat sharks also trapped inside.
The sharks are believed to have died recently after becoming caught in the gill fishing net whilst out at sea.
Marine Environmental Monitoring attended the beach as part of the Cetacean Strandings Investigation Programme and on behalf of the Welsh Government.
Specialists collected several sharks for further investigation while the remaining animals and net were removed from the beach.
It is not currently known who the net belonged to.
Investigators believe it may have belonged to a hobby fisherman who either became overwhelmed by the weight of the catch or did not know how to deal with the situation.
A spokesperson for Marine Environmental Monitoring said: “Over the bank holiday weekend, we received reports of a large fishing net that had washed up on the beach at Pembrey Country Park in Carmarthenshire.
“The photos we received showed that the net was full of some type of shark.
“We attended the site early bank holiday morning to carry out an investigation.
“The net was full of around 200 adult female and male Tope sharks.
“There was also a small handful of small cat sharks within the net.
“All the sharks had recently died, unfortunately, most likely within the net.
“It currently isn’t possible to work out who the net belonged to but it is possible that it was a hobby fisherman who didn’t know how to deal with it, or was maybe hand hauling from a small boat and couldn’t get it aboard due to the weight and cut it loose.
“We will be working with the Welsh Government, NRW and the local authority to better understand what happened and find ways to prevent this in future.”
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