Sharks in Lake Michigan? C’mon. Sounds like a lunatic sequel to Sharknado, right?
Well, believe it or not, there is a species of shark – unfortunately, one of the deadliest – that can adapt from salt water to fresh water rather easily, and has been spotted as far north as St. Louis in the Mississippi. The dreaded bull shark.
While not as famous as its cousin, the Great White, bull sharks are considered by some experts to be the most dangerous man-eaters in the ocean. And the bull shark has an adaptation that puts the rest of his species to shame – the ability to survive in fresh water for extended periods of time.
How, you ask? Remarkably, bull sharks have a gland that allows them to regulate the salinity of their bodies. So a jaunt up the Mississippi isn’t that big of a deal for these killers.
Now, having said that, attacks from any kind of shark are exceedingly rare, and even more so in fresh water. According to the Florida Museum of Natural History’s International Shark Attack File, in 2022 there were 57 unprovoked shark attacks on humans worldwide.
However, this past February, a teenage girl was killed in a shark attack in the Swan River in Perth, Australia. According to a report from Business Insider:
“Stella Berry was with friends riding jet skis in the Swan River, located in the city of Perth in Western Australia, when her friends said she decided to jump in the water to swim with dolphins that had been seen nearby. Her friends witnessed the attack, with Australian authorities calling it an “extremely traumatic” incident for everyone involved.
“Don Punch, the Australian fisheries minister, said on Sunday it was too early to confirm the species of the shark involved, but said that it was believed to be a bull shark.
“‘We do know that bull sharks, particularly, do enter estuaries and freshwater river systems, so it is likely that may be the case,’ Punch told the Australian outlet ABC News.”
For Illinoisans, there’s really not much to worry about. The last known sighting of a bull shark in the Mississippi near Illinois (St. Louis) was 1995, and the last prior to that was 1937.
So go ahead an jump in, the water’s fine. We think….
