All sharp teeth and tough cartilage, the salmon shark is a species that doesn't elicit much sympathy.

But the sight of these small sharks dead and dying on Oregon beaches last summer sparked a flurry of phone calls to Oregon State University's Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport. Soon, scientists could know what caused the unusual die-off.

"Most of these sharks when they die, they don't end up on the beach," says Bill Hanshumaker, the center's public marine education specialist.

Scientists first determined the sharks weren't juvenile great whites, as beach-goers first thought. Closely related to the infamous predator, salmon sharks are distinguished from their great white cousins by non-serrated teeth and a secondary keel, a small fin on the underside of its body. The species, however, share habitat off the coast of Oregon.

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