Tiffany Boothe/Seaside Aquarium

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A live juvenile salmon shark became stranded on a northern Oregon beach Saturday and, despite the efforts of would-be rescuers from the nearby Seaside Aquarium, the animal died several hours later.

On Saturday morning, Mike Patterson, of Astoria, was walking on Sunset Beach when he happened upon the shark, a 3.5-foot female, struggling in the surf, according to a spokeswoman for the aquarium.

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Tiffany Boothe/Seaside Aquarium

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Patterson called the aquarium, where his daughter works, and the facility dispatched a team of rescuers to try to help the ailing animal. Staff repeatedly tried to return the shark to the water, but each time she again beached herself.

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Tiffany Boothe/Seaside Aquarium

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Rescuers quickly transferred the animal to a holding tank and brought it back to the aquarium to try to stabilize the creature so it could be taken to a facility with larger tanks where it could be rehabilitated.

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Within a couple hours, and before the creature could be moved, the shark died, an aquarium spokeswoman said.

Young salmon sharks, which resemble great white sharks in almost every way except for size, can grow up to 10 feet long. It's unknown exactly how old the animal in question was, but given it was less than 4 feet long, it couldn't have been very old, according to the aquarium.

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Tiffany Boothe/Seaside Aquarium

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The sharks range as far south as Mexico, but are more common in the Northern Pacific, all the way up to Alaska, where they have historically been fished for sport. Little is known about the animals, but strandings of juveniles is not uncommon.

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Wikimedia Commons.

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"The reason for these juvenile sharks washing ashore this time of year is still a bit of a mystery, and though it has been happening for a number of years, biologist(s) are still trying to figure out why," the aquarium said in a Facebook post.

"The Aquarium often tries to collect those which have passed away. We use them for education, allowing people to watch the dissections, while we take tissue samples which are sent off to biologist(s) studying this phenomena," the aquarium added.

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A 3.5 foot juvenile salmon shark stranded itself near Sunset Beach, Oregon this morning. The small shark was still... Posted by Seaside Aquarium on Saturday, August 18, 2018

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In the past month alone,

, one of which weighed 90 pounds and measured nearly 10 feet in length.

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-- Kale Williams

kwilliams@oregonian.com

503-294-4048