BARRY MARKOWITZ / SPECIAL TO THE STAR-BULLETIN
Terrance Ghoston, 18, of Kahaluu, examined some of the more than 36 hammerhead sharks found dead on the beach fronting his home in Kahaluu last night.
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Baby hammerheads wash up dead in Kaneohe Bay
3 dozen hammerhead sharks are found dead in bay waters near Kahaluu
An 18-year-old Kahaluu man discovered about three dozen hammerhead sharks washed up on shore yesterday behind his home on Kaneohe Bay.
Terrance Ghoston of 47-703-B Kamehameha Highway said he and his Labrador retriever, Rascal, were playing in the water between 11:30 a.m. and noon when the dog brought a roughly foot-long hammerhead to shore and tried to eat it. Ghoston threw it back in the water, but the dog brought back another shark.
He said he "paid no mind" and left his home, but when he returned at about 6 p.m., he found "a bunch of sharks." Ghoston counted about 36 foot-long hammerheads in the 30- to 40-yard area behind his home.
BARRY MARKOWITZ / SPECIAL TO THE STAR-BULLETIN
Above, a close-up of a couple of the dead sharks that lined the beach.
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David Schofield, a marine mammal response coordinator with the National Marine Fisheries Service, said the sharks appeared to be juvenile hammerheads.
Schofield lives nearby and said he went to the area when he heard there had been a "mass stranding" of sharks.
He said he took a couple of dead sharks as samples and will turn them over to shark experts today.
It was dark when he arrived, he said, but he still counted about a dozen dead sharks.
Police said they received a report of several hammerheads at a Kamehameha Highway address, and officers contacted the fisheries service.
Ghoston said he hoped someone will clean up the dead fish, which are causing a stench in his back yard. "There's got to be other sharks trying to feed on them," he said. "That's my main concern -- if there is something in the water, I'd like to know."