A six-foot-long Nurse Shark was found in the middle of a Miami street on Tuesday after two men unsuccessfully tried to sell it to local fish markets. You read correctly. A shark. In the street.
In total, police visited three fish markets in the vicinity of the dumped shark, with each sharing a similar story of two men attempting to sell the shark for a sum of $10 to $20.
Jorge Sanchez of Casablanca Fish Market told WPLG reporter, Roger Lohse;
"It was still moving. The gills were moving and the eyes were moving. It was two homeless (men), and I said, 'What are you guys doing with this shark?' He said, 'I got it myself. It's 87 pounds. I want $10 for it.' I said, 'That's not good. I'm not going to buy it.'"
As news got out of the shark, a passenger of the city's Metromover train came forward after realizing they had snapped a photograph of the then, still alive shark, but unfortunately did not capture the two men traveling with it. Police are trying to determine whether security cameras picked up the faces of the fishy duo after reviewing blurry surveillance video near the scene of the dumped fish. They currently have no leads.
Officer Jorge Pino of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said;
"In my 20 years of law enforcement, I've never seen a shark in the middle of the street anywhere. It doesn't surprise me in Miami. I've seen all kinds of weird things, but a shark in the middle of the street is something completely unusual. It's not a major crime here. It's something unusual. It's something that we certainly would like to get to the bottom of."
It's been determined that the Nurse Shark was not a protected animal or on an endangered species list and was thrown back into the ocean late Tuesday night. Please, people, don't leave sharks in the street.
[via WPLG Miami, video via AP]