Hammerhead sharks wash up on beach

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Experts are trying to discover why 36 baby hammerhead sharks washed up dead on a beach.

The sharks were found on Hawaii's Windward Oahu beach on Wednesday by 18-year old Terrance Ghosten who was out walking his dog.

According to thehawaiichannel.com, Ghosten's dog found two dead hammerhead shark pups on his lunchtime walk, and then found another 34 dead pups later that night.

The report says that hammerheads are known to give birth to their pups in the area and dead pups are sometimes washed ashore. However, it is rare to find so many dead pups in one place.

The Kaneohe Bay area is believed to be a nursery area for young hammerheads and researchers studying the sharks go there because the fish are so abundant, with thousands of young hammerheads believed to be living in the Bay.

Scientists from Hawaii's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency (NOAA) have taken some of the pups away to see if they can determine the cause of death.

One possible explanation could be that the fish were discarded by a gill-netter. John Naughton of the NOAA told thehawaiichannel.com: "

"We don't know for sure if this is what happened but from our experience in the past when we get large numbers of hammerhead pups dying this is generally the cause."