A shark was captured on video swimming in the flooded streets of Surf City in Ocean County while the region was battered by the nor’easter last weekend.
The video was recorded by Drew Procaccino, 66, an adjunct professor at Rider University, around noon on Saturday as the shark swam past his home, he said in a phone interview.
Procaccino said Surf City was “totally flooded” because of the powerful storm, and he lost internet service for around 48 hours, so he and his wife passed time watching debris float by until his wife noticed something that appeared to be a fish.
Then they realized it might be a shark, he said.
“First one we’ve ever seen in front of our house,” Procaccino said.
At first he shared the video with some news organizations, including ABC News, and then he licensed his video with Storyful, the social media news agency.
ABC News said a marine researcher reviewed the video and identified the animal as a smooth dogfish, which can be found along the Atlantic coast from Massachusetts to Florida.
The smooth dogfish, also known as the dusky smooth-hound or dog shark, on average grow to about 48 inches in length, but have been known to measure up to 5 feet.
Unlike other sharks, the smooth dogfish has flat, blunt teeth for grinding crustaceans and other small prey, rather than sharp teeth for tearing apart animals.
On Monday, the Barnegat Lighthouse State Park posted a video of a man rescuing a similar shark from shallow water and throwing it back into the ocean inlet.
“Hero! Bobby Capri takes off his shoes, jumps into the tidepool, catches a dogfish, and throws it back into the inlet — just in time from it becoming lunch for a very interested seagull,” the state park posted.