“Monster” Great White Shark Washes Ashore in Australia (Video)

Originally posted on SURFER | By Dashel Pierson | Last updated May 6, 2025 12:38 PM ET

A great white shark washed ashore Monday on Henley Beach in South Australia’s Adelaide, and beachgoers attempted to help it, as the 10-footer scrambled for its life in the shallow water. Locals used bare hands, doing their damndest to turn the beast around, and send it back to the depths.

But their efforts were in vain.

“It was struggling. It was rolling around. Its belly was up. It looked like it was pretty sick,” said one spectator on the scene. Then, once it finally beached itself entirely, the shark died soon after. “It’s a traumatic thing,” said another spectator. “It’s a very saddening thing to see a marine creature like this pass away in front of everyone.” Officials then came and towed the corpse away.

This is the fourth shark to wash ashore in the region is as many weeks, leading experts to wonder what’s going on. According to Michael Drew of Primary Industries South Australia:

“It looked like they hadn’t fed in a few days. There’s been some mucus around the gills, which is something that’s a bit unusual.”

Furthermore, some marine life experts suspect that the loads of sharks washing ashore could be attributed to the recent mysterious sea foam that bombarded South Australia’s shores.

“It’s just covered in a really heavy, dense, yellow foam, with a fair bit of green, slimy, scummy stuff on the beach at the tidelines,” local surfer Anthony Rowland told The Guardian. After surfing amidst the foam, Rowland reported: “I was really raspy. It was sort of like when you inhale a potent cleaning product, if you’re cleaning a kitchen sink or something. It hit the back of my throat.”

As for the sharks, just last week, a similar incident occurred when another 10-foot great white shark found itself in the shallow waters of Tiddy Widdy beach. In that case, locals were able to help the shark – also with only their bare hands – and escort it off into deeper water safely.

This article first appeared on SURFER and was syndicated with permission.

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