On Dec 28th a Greenland sleeper shark (Somniosus microcephalus) beached itself at Aalbaek i northern Denmark. The shark, of which there has been only 19 other recorded finds in Danish waters, measured some 280 cm in length. And to add a little bit of coincidence and synchronicity, the shark decided to end its days on the same spot where a giant squid beached itself in the early 1800s, enabling danish zoologist Japetus Steenstrup to publish the first scientific description of a giant squid (the beak can still be seen at the museum in Copenhagen) and realise that this animal was the culprit behind stories about sea-monks.
A picture of the shark can be seen on this danish website:
http://gonews.dk.msn.com/indland/artikel.aspx?cp-documentid=155809672
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