By Ted Mann
- Isvett Verde
- The N train shark, shot by a fellow rider.
An N train pulled into the Queensboro Plaza subway station around 12:30 a.m. on Wednesday bearing its usual complement of overnight passengers and one unexpected guest: a shark.
Luckily for the passengers who spotted the misplaced sea creature, the shark was not in a biting mood. It was dead.
The origin of the shark, which appeared to be about two feet long , was not immediately clear, though a witness told Gothamist it had been on the train at least since 34th Street.
Images of the shark bounced around social media networks Wednesday morning. They included a series in which the shark was made to pose with a cigarette, a can of Red Bull, and a MetroCard. (It was unlikely that the shark had paid for his ride. Base fare for human passengers is $2.50.)
A spokesman for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority said the shark in car Number 8994 came to the attention of the conductor when the train had arrived at Queensboro Plaza.
The conductor “isolated the car,” the spokesman said, and the N continued its route to Ditmars Boulevard.
Once there, a supervisor “reported the shark was dead,” the MTA said, “and he placed it in a garbage bag and disposed of it in the trash.”
Sharks and other animals are not banned from the New York City subway. But those that are not service animals must be in an enclosed container, the MTA spokesman said. That would mean a carry bag or kennel for a dog or cat. Or, in the case of a shark, an aquarium with a lid.
Brandon Sanchez, a 20-year-old NYU student, had just left a venue in Chinatown and was waiting for the N at Canal Street when the train rolled by, slowly, the shark visible on the floor of an empty car.
The car was empty for good reason, Mr. Sanchez said — “it smelled pretty rotten” — though he added that a customer hopped aboard the shark’s car at Prince Street, seemingly unfazed.
When the train reached Union Square, Mr. Sanchez’s stop, he ducked into the shark car and snapped a picture. In an interview on Wednesday, he said he thought the shark had been placed there as a practical joke, perhaps because of the Discovery Channel’s “Shark Week” programming.
A spokeswoman for the Discovery Channel said the programs are “all about conservation, so it deeply saddens us that someone would think that this was funny or in any way connected to our celebration of sharks.”
Even so, Mr. Sanchez said, “I’ve seen weird stuff but never something like this.”
Asked if he hoped never to see another subway shark, Mr. Sanchez replied, “Not on the train, but hopefully again someday. I do like sharks.”
The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority could be forgiven for being unimpressed with the dead shark problems of the MTA. The Boston transit agency had to deal with a more wily problem in 2011: a live snake named Penelope.
The pet was loose in the subway’s Red Line for nearly a month before being recaptured by transit workers.
Its owner was initially assessed $600 for cleanup issues related to Penelope’s stay on the T. That payment was never actually made, though a MBTA spokesman noted that the snake’s owner was not known to have brought her aboard the train again.
Asked to compare the challenge of a live boa to a dead shark, MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo demurred.
“I’d prefer to see neither when I take the Green Line home this evening,” he said.
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