I’m having issues seeing that web page all the time so I copied the text of the article below:
An 8- to 9-foot shark that washed up on Asilomar State Beach on Thursday is a rare sea creature that lives in deep waters, dines on giant squid and can grow to lengths of more than 20 feet, said a scientist from the Pelagic Shark Research Foundation in Santa Cruz.
"It appears to be a decomposed Pacific sleeper shark — Somniosus pacificus — a relatively rare, not well-studied species," said Sean Van Sommeran, executive director at the research foundation, after examining a photo of the animal. "It looks like it may have been bitten by another shark or some other predator, and from the photo I’d say it doesn’t look very fresh."
The carcass has extensive damage to the body and is missing a dorsal fin and most of its mouth area.
A state game warden who examined the shark said some of its injuries appeared to be even cuts, probably inflicted by humans, as opposed to damage from other sea predators.
"We haven’t done any kind of formal exam, but the shark was missing its dorsal fin and a tail fin, and in both cases they appeared to have been lopped off evenly, rather than chewed," said Jacob Juarez of California Fish and Game. "The shark’s lower jaw also is missing, but it’s difficult to say whether it was chewed or cut."
Juarez said the fish probably had been on the Pacific Grove beach for a couple of days, but went unreported until Thursday, when it was found by a local marine biologist.
Juarez said sharks are sometimes killed by humans for their fins, which are a popular food staple in some cultures.
The Pacific sleeper shark has been seen at more than 2,000 feet below the surface, according to marinebio.org. Another 10-foot sleeper shark washed up on a beach near Monterey Harbor in 1999, Van Sommeran said, and a 15-footer was found on a beach in Santa Cruz in June 2006.