A rare deep-sea shark washed ashore on an Australian beach a few days back, startling visitors. The strange creature was spotted on the shore of Seven Mile Beach, on the New South Wales South Coast.

Australian Museum Ichthyology collection manager Amanda Hay told NewsWire the sea animal was a Thresher Shark, Alopias vulpinus. 

People who saw the shark say that it was at least three metres in length. Photos shared on social media also show the huge shark, that was already dead, missing a few teeth. 

A man who saw the shark wrote on social media, “Seems like it just washed in with the tide. Some heavy bites to the snout but the worst damage seemed underneath as it was bleeding heavily.”

Talking about what features differentiate it from other species, Hay said, “It can be differentiated from the other species, by the length of the upper lobe of the caudal fin, the size of the eye, but most distinctively the white from the underside extends above the pectoral fin, where it is grey in the other two species.”

They have extremely long tails, that are most of the time as long as their bodies.

What led to the dead shark washing ashore is not clear, although it was possibly attacked by another marine animal which was likely much bigger. 

She added that dead fish commonly wash up on beaches.

Thresher Sharks commonly live around the Brisbane area, the region from southern Australia running until the North West Shelf, Western Australia and Tasmania. They can also be found around New Zealand.

They are classified as vulnerable by the World Conservation Union.

Lawrence Chlebeck, Marine Biologist and Campaigner at the Humane Society International (HSI), told Yahoo News Australia, that we can expect to see more such creatures coming to the shores in future because of the changing climate. Ocean currents are changing because of the environmental changes and “often bringing unexpected species into new areas”.