Great White shark on the prowl...in Oregon

It wasn’t a good weekend for two mammals on the northern Oregon coast – a seal and a sea lion both washed up with what appear to be major shark bites from a great white, aquarium officials said.

The seal's bite wound.

On Friday, a dead harbor seal drifted onto the beach at Seaside with a two-foot chunk taken out of its back. And since Saturday, an extremely unhappy California Sea Lion has been resting on a beach with a sizable wound.

In both cases, officials believe it was a shark -- likely a great white shark – that attacked.

"It could have been an orca," said Keith Chandler with the Seaside Aquarium, "but it's more likely a shark. A killer whale would likely mess the thing up a lot more, or eat the whole thing."
The harbor seal with a gaping hole in its back was a full-grown adult, probably about six years old, officials said.

"They often swim upside down, so they probably weren't paying attention when the shark came down on it," Chandler said. "I've never seen a hole that big in a seal."

"The entire backbone is gone," said