It’s been about five weeks or so since a massive sixgill shark — a 12-foot long female — washed up on the beach at Argyle Lagoon.

If you’ve been wondering what that was all about, well, The Whale Museum just may be the place to find some answers.

On Wednesday, that’s today, the museum will host Dr. Shawn Larson of Seattle Aquarium in the next edition of its summer lecture series. Larson’s presentation gets under way at the museum at 7 p.m., admission is free.

Curator of Seattle Aquarium’s conservation research program for the past 18 years, Larson, who earned a doctorate at the U of W School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences, leads a research program that spans 14 projects focused not only on the biology of the Sixgill shark, but on octopus, rockfish, sea otters, Hawaiian reef fish and sea turtles as well.

Also known as cowsharks, Sixgills are deep-water creatures that typically inhabit the outer ocean and that are at home in depths of up to 3,000 feet.

Slow-moving yet deadly, they prey on large fish and other sharks by methodically sidling up next to an intended target and then attack with an enormous burst of speed.

None of which explains how or why that Sixgill ended up stranded at Argyle Lagoon.

For more information about the museum summer lecture series or the Whale Museum, 378-4710 ext. 23, or www.whalemuseum.org.