From Discovery News:
Dozens of leopard sharks have been washing up dead in California since April, and now a necropsy shows at least one of the sharks died of massive internal bleeding, such that blood was even coming out of the shark’s skin, according to a Daily News report.
The necropsy, conducted by the California Department of Fish and Game, uncovered “inflammation, bleeding and lesions in the brain, and hemorrhaging from the skin near vents.” According to the Daily News story, bleeding was additionally detected around the tested female’s other internal organs.
The results suggest the 50 sharks that have washed up dead at Redwood Shores in Redwood City, California, since April must have died a slow and agonizing death.
Catherine Greer, a resident of the city, said she and her son tried to save some of the sharks by returning them to the water, but “they’d swim right back, thrashing their heads against the shore … as if they were trying to commit suicide.”
Some people have been saying this syndrome seems similar to what’s been killing blackbirds. I don’t know enough to male a judgement but it does seem as if we’re seeing an acceleration of die-offs. A disease of some type effecting these various species and not humans seems unlikely.