Something fishy about shark on New York subway

MYSTERY surrounds how a small, dead shark tued up on a New York City train.

The shark was spotted on a Queens-bound N train early Wednesday moing.

Gothamist received a photo tip from "Mary M" who boarded the N train just after midnight at 34th Street in Manhattan.

"I board a car that's not terribly full and as soon as I enter, a stench hits my nose. It's not the typical urine/trash smell, it's ... fishy?" she said. "I look down to the end of the car to see a dead shark on the floor. I think I stood there for a good minute just staring, thinking 'Is this for real?! Oh come ON, NYC!'

"One of my fellow passengers remarked 'I've been riding the subway for 15 years, and this is the weirdest thing I've seen. And I've seen EVERYTHING,'" she recounted. "Once we got to Queensboro Plaza, an MTA employee made all of us move to another car."

Gothamist reached out to the New York MTA, which operates the subway. A spokesman responded with humour to questions on how the organisation goes about deposing of dead sharks found on the subway.

"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," he said. "Dead ones are handled by Shark Maintainer Is, or if none are available on that shift, then by Aquatic Mammal Handler IIs."

Passengers ride the subway carriage with a dead shark on board. Picture: Gothamist

To make matters even more peculiar it is Shark Week in the US at the moment. Perhaps it is an early push for the Sharknado 2 movie, which is set to start filming in New York.