MYFOXNY.COM - A basking shark that washed up on a beach in Gilgo State Park, a few miles from crowded Jones Beach, has died, parks officials said.
This shark was about 20 feet long and weighed about a ton. Surfers who saw the hulking shark wash ashore said it was quite an imposing sight.
Basking sharks are common in the waters off Long Island, according to parks officials. Though quite huge and members of the same shark family that includes great whites, basking sharks are considered harmless because they have tiny teeth and eat plankton, according to the Marine Conservation Society.