As the largest predatory fish in the ocean, it is rare to see a great white shark washed up on Australian shores.
But last month, members of the community noticed a great white shark on the beach near Fowlers Bay, on South Australia's far west coast.
The shark was about 2.5 metres long and experts believe it was about one year old when it died.
National Parks and Wildlife Service South Australia marine coordinator Dirk Holman said with help from Fisheries SA, members of his team were able to retrieve the shark the following day.
"It's really unusual; normally if an animal, like a marine mammal, washes up it's because it's either sick or injured."
Mr Holman said the shark might have become stuck on the beach during a low tide.
"They are pretty sparse, there's not a big south-west population of sharks and they are spread and wide," he said.
"Potentially, he was patrolling the beach looking for salmon and might have got himself a bit high and dry."
The shark — which could have grown up to 6 metres long — was found with significant red staining around its mouth.
Mr Holman said the discolouration could have been caused by a number of factors.
"It could have been a little bit of trauma from the sand if it was thrashing around on the sand as it died. It could have been a little bit of exposure to the sun," he said.
"Or it could be just part of the natural process of death, of the animal passing away and blood flow remaining near the skin surface and not circulating."
The discovery and quick retrieval meant the shark could be put in a freezer to preserve it for scientists at the CSIRO to carry out sampling and DNA retrieval.
"They will look at the stomach contents, they will look at the heart, and they will look at the DNA, which will provide valuable information for the CSIRO's population analysis," Mr Holman said.
"We are really grateful to the community members for reporting it to us as quickly as they did."
