Man catches 6-foot, 135-pound bull shark (Caught in Red River near Simmesport miles upriver)

News Flash ^ | 9-23-04 | The Associated Press

[nmh]

Any pictures?

[RedBloodedAmerican]

Must have been brackish water. We would see them in the Loxahatchee allot when I was a kid.

[BibChr]

Surprised he doesn't get a fine for saltwater game fishing without a license, or some stupid thing.

Dan
/c8

[Dead Corpse]

My biggest was a black tip out of the Broad River in so. Carolina. 4' 5" from nose to tail. Needed two gaffs to get him onto the boat. Meat still tasted OK although I've heard that too much bigger than that and the meat can get rubbery and gamey.

[blackdog]

Global warming.......

[bayourod]

"He had to come all the way up the Atchafalaya to get here,"

Isn't the Atachfalaya the deepest river in the world? I think the Mississipi runs into it because it's so deep.

[Tamzee]

Pelosi Skinnydipping Ping

[MichaelP]

It's happened before.

Case of the 1916 NJ maneater

Mike

[R. Scott]

When I worked on the boats we often caught sharks in the Neuse and Potomac Rivers – both a sizable distance from the ocean.

[Hermann the Cherusker]

The Red River is NOT brackish water. Anywhere. its a couple hundred miles from the coast!

[Skooz]

I'm about 500 yards from the Red River right now. It ain't brackish, it's just muddy.

[RedBloodedAmerican]

Oh. Thanks. Well, I have seen enormous gators in the shipping lanes while fishing saltwater near the Cape. So I guess these critters are bihydrophobes (new word) :o)

[Conan the Librarian]

Bulls, and, if I remember right, Tiger Sharks have been seen in the Mississippi as far up as St. Louis. Its not that unusual even.

And it was just a 6 footer, the gators would have eaten that as a snack.

[Tallguy]

The Bull Shark has a high tolerance for fresh water. They retain the ability to move into rivers as adults.

I saw a big one, 7 or 8 feet long, while scuba diving down in Mexico back in January. You expect to see sharks in certain waters, but this is one of the species that makes you sit up & take notice.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Bull sharks are adaptable to fresh water. They have been caught as far up the Mississippi as St. Louis, and have been caught on the Amazon hundreds of miles inland.

Bull Shark

Carcharhinus leucas

The bull shark belongs to the Kingdom Animalia, Phylum Chordata, Class Chondrichthyes, Order Carcharhiniformes, Suborder Scyliorhinoidei, Family Carcharhinidae, Genus Carcharhinus and Species leucas. The bull shark is also known as the cub shark, Ganges shark, Nicaragua shark, river shark, shovelnose shark, slipway grey shark, freshwater whaler, estuary whaler, Swan River whaler, square-nose shark, Van Rooyen's shark and Zambezi shark.

The bull shark is located in both tropical and subtropical oceans as well as seas along the coastlines. The bull shark can also be found in fresh water rivers and lakes, including Lake Nicaragua in Nicaragua and the Zambezi River in Africa. It is a frequent dweller of shallow waters. The bull shark has been found up to 1,750 miles up the Mississippi River in St. Louis and 2,500 miles up the Amazon River. It is the only shark that has been found in both fresh and salt waters.

The bull shark can be distinguished from other sharks because it has a long, stout body and short, blunt snout. Bull sharks also have a second dorsal fin that is one third the height of the first. The bull shark has a gray to brownish-gray top or dorsal side and a paler white underside or ventral side. Young bull sharks usually have dark edges on their fins.

The bull shark is the third most aggressive shark in the world, following only the tiger and great white sharks in number of shark attacks each year. Leading shark researchers believe that it is very likely the bull shark is responsible for the 1916 New Jersey attacks attributed to the Great White shark and the inspiration for the movie Jaws.

The bull shark is a solitary hunter. Their diet usually consists of fish, rays, birds, turtles and small sharks (especially the sandcar shark) and dolphins. Almost everything has been found in the stomach of bull sharks, from bicycle tires to human remains.

Adult males are about typically 7 feet long and weigh up to 200 pounds while adult females are typically 11.5 feet long and weigh up to 500 pounds.

Bull sharks mature sexually between the ages of 8 to 10. Breeding usually occurs during the warmer summer months. The gestation period is around 1 year and birth usually occurs in brackish waters, the area where freshwater rivers and saltwater oceans meet. Female bull sharks are viviparous, meaning they give birth to live young. A female bull shark can give birth to a litter of up to 13 baby sharks, called pups. The pups are born live and are typically 28 inches long.

The population of the bull shark is drastically declining because of overfishing of the shark for commercial use. It is eaten in the coastal areas. Bull shark skin is also used to make leather from.

[Pyro7480]

I wouldn't want to be anywhere near a Bull Shark while scuba diving!

[Tallguy]

Not really. Scuba divers aren't on their menu. The joke among sharks is that the "hard bits" on a divers back make you fart.

The only time a diver is really vulnerable is while spearfishing (which I don't do), in really low viz (like a surf line), or (maybe) on the surface where a curious shark might take a nibble. The Bull Shark that I saw back in January disappeared almost as soon as he/she appeared.

[TBall]

I was just watching fox news and there is a great white shark being tracked in the same river that inspired the story of Jaws. What were the chances? I will never forget back in 2001 the two fatal attacks occurring within 24 hours. One in Va. Beach and Kitty Hawk.

[Nick Danger]

Man catches 6-foot, 135-pound bull shark

Better that than have the 6-foot, 135-pound shark catch the man. I've had it with this ethical treatment of animals. I say catch the damned things, and eat them.