A sand shark that washed ashore in Wildwood Crest last week was an isolated event and is not under investigation, officials said today.

The Press of Atlantic City reported this week that the Wildwood Crest Public Works department removed a dead 6-foot-long sand shark last Thursday.

New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection Larry Ragonese said this is an isolated event and that the department is not investigating it.

"Sharks wash up all along the East Coast all the time," he said, but people just don't always hear about it.

Last month, the Marine Mammal Stranding Center said a dead whale that washed ashore in Atlantic City — and was spray painted with Greek letters — tested positive for morbivillivirus, the same virus that killed hundreds of dolphins along the East Coast last year.

Ragonese said that's not the case with the dead shark in Wildwood Crest. Joe Bond, superintendent of the public works departments, told the Press of Atlantic City that the shark may have died after being hit by a boat.

A study by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration scientists finds that numbers of great white sharks are surging along the East Coast. The report also found that great whites are more common along the coast than offshore.

A group of fisherman shot video of a great white as it ripped a basket of bait from their 25-foot-vessel off the coast of Cape May County.

A baby great white was also caught by a group of friends about a mile off the shore in Rockaway Beach in New York and lifeguards spotted a shark just off the coast in Monmouth Beach last month.

But Ragonese said there isn't anything abnormal about these reports. "Sharks are in the waters off the Jersey Coast every day," he said. "That would be normal."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.