VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WVEC) — A shark sighting at the Virginia Beach Oceanfront Sunday evening put beachgoers into a frenzy.
Chet Meachum, a part-time lifeguard since 1988, first spotted the juvenile dusky shark in front of his stand on 39th Street. It’s the first time he’s ever seen one wash onto shore while on duty.
“I’ve never seen it out here. It’s its natural habitat, but they don’t really surface. You never really see them,” said Meachum.
He immediately started to blow his whistle to get people out of the water and far away from the shark. Then, he took matters into his own hands.
“When the shark looked like it could no longer hurt anybody else, I helped it back into the water.”
The shark washed onto shore two other times, a sign that it was most likely ill.
“We knew it was in distress because it beached itself two other times. Once on 41st Street and the supervisor pulled it back into the water and finally just north on 43rd,” said Meachum.
It died the third time it beached and eventually, the tide dragged its body back into the water. Julie Levans, a Senior Curator of Fishes, Herpetology, and Invertebrates at the Virginia Aquarium said dusky sharks are common to our area, but this one beached more than once, a sign that it may have been ill.
“It’s very likely that this animal was not feeling well as it did not have the strength to get itself back out of the wash zone,” said Levans.
Typically, sharks don’t wander that close to shore unless something is wrong and they’re unable to swim away.
“I think everybody should enjoy the water. It’s their home, not ours. We’re just visitors in it,” said Meachum.
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