Beached Shark Dies on Cape Cod

It was a stunning discovery on Cape Cod when a great white shark washed ashore on White Crest Beach in Wellfleet, Massachusetts, Sunday morning. People sprung from their beach blankets to snap pictures of the animal.

Eyewitnesses estimate the shark was between 10-15 feet long, and say it was clearly in distress.

"It was gasping for air on the shore at that point. It was big, it was a big shark," said Bill Bellrose of Boston.

"As it became more evident the tide was dropping and the animal was still alive and needed our help, everyone started pitching in," lifeguard John Wallace said.

Hundreds of people got to work, pouring water on the animal and digging a trench to try and free it from the sand and get it back out to sea.

"Just telling the big guys (to) get up front to do the pulling, girls getting buckets ... they had shovels, digging trenches, pouring water," said Rob Law of Saratoga Springs, New York.

The scene had people who might normally be terrified of this animal fighting to keep it alive.

"Some women had tears in her eyes, like, 'Oh my gosh, we have to get the shark back out into the water.' No one was thinking about the shark biting them or anything else. It was his survival, really something to see," said Barbara Law of Albany, New York.

Despite getting it back out into the water, it appeared the shark had died.

"It was a good thing they tried to revive it, but at the end of the day nature has its way of dealing with things and it had its way today," Bellrose said.

This wasn't the first time this summer people tried to save a beached shark on Cape Cod. in July, people successfully saved a shark in Chatham after it washed ashore.

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