Finding a wrinkled newspaper, someone’s forgotten baseball cap, or even a torn up map might be expected on a subway train, but finding a dead shark is not something most people would expect. However, New York City subway riders recently were confronted with this most unexpected encounter.

The N train at Canal Street yesterday had all the markings of a typical midnight ride, except for the eighteen inch dead shark riding at the bottom of the subway. While there is no official word on how or why the small shark was placed on a subway train, it was suggested that this may have been part of a hoax as a result of this week being Discovery Channel’s renown annual nod to the ferocious fish. Talk about some people taking Shark Week pretty seriously!

Adam Lisberg of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority had this to say about the incident, “Live sharks are wrangled by Shark Maintainer IIs, who have passed the qualification test and have minimum three years in the Shark Maintainer I title. Dead ones are handled by Shark Maintainer Is, or if none are available on that shift, then by Aquatic Mammal Handler IIs.”

Contact was initiated to the MTA at 12:30, and when the subway pulled into the Astoria terminal an attendant was there to inspect the subway car where the shark was determined to be dead and placed in a trash receptacle.

Isvett Verde, a passenger on the train, had this to say about the outcome for the shark, “The poor shark! It’s so sad,” before adding “I’m not surprised because you see everything here. I don’t know if someone went fishing, and changed their mind — and decided to leave it on the train.”

Regardless of the reason behind the placement of the shark on the subway, the passengers abroad saw something that would shock even the most seasoned subway travelers.

[ New York Post ]