A mystery on Mobile Bay this morning when close to 100 bull sharks washed up on the beach.

Residents and vacationers staying at homes on the beach on Belleair Boulevard, near Dauphin Island Parkway, woke up to find the sharks. They were left with plenty of questions, but very few answers.

Sabrina Rios and her family are staying in Mobile on vacation and found the sharks this morning. They said they also found a net with close to 40 sharks inside.

Rios said, “It definitely caught our attention because I know that that is illegal and you shouldn’t be doing that. We just didn’t know what to do about it.”

The smell of the dead sharks was too much to handle. So Rios along with others in the area decided to bury as many as possible.

Rios added, “It seems like such a waste. I mean whatever was in the net, it seems like they took it, and then they left the poor sharks there to die.”

The sharks cause of death is unknown at this time. It is also unknown how they got to the beach on Mobile Bay.

Officials with the Marine Resources Division and the Dauphin Island Sea Lab are investigating the deaths of the sharks.

News 5 spoke with officials with Dauphin Island Sea Lab this morning. They currently have 57 sharks in their possession, at this time, there is no exact number of sharks that were found on the beach.

Officials will know more Tuesday when the shark specialist from the Sea Lab returns and performs the necropsy on the sharks to determine the cause of death.