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How far up river have sharks been found?

2,485 miles/ 4,000 km up The Amazon River. Bull sharks have even been seen 2,485 miles/ 4,000 km away from the ocean up the Amazon river. Bull sharks have been known to travel all the way from the Brazilian coast up river to Iquitos in Peru and into northern Bolivia.



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While there have been past “sightings,” most have turned out to be pranks or misidentifications. The reality is that the largest of the Great Lakes (Lake Superior and Michigan) are extremely deep lakes that are too cold for sharks.

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Lake Nicaragua is one of the largest freshwater lakes in the Americas and bull sharks travel up the San Juan River and through a series of eight rapids in a similar manner to salmon to reach the lake, where they may stay for several years.

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Two Coho fishermen pulled a 29-inch shark from Lake Michigan about two miles off the Milwaukee shore on April 25, 1969. The shark was dead, but for several days fishermen in the area were uneasy.

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The first field scientist to observe and record data on the Missouri River Shark was Tim Wood. Though reports of his sightings are considerer likely myth or legend, he first described the Missouri River Shark as Glyphis meramecus. Few sightings have been recorded in the wild and no known specimens exist.

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Two fishermen caught the shark in 1937 on the Mississippi River. Another bull shark was caught by a fisherman south of St. Louis on the Mississippi River in 1995, this time near Rush Island, Missouri.

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But Bull Sharks are able to recycle salt in their kidneys, maintaining salt levels critical to its survival. Yet even the Bull Shark would not be able to make its way into the Great Lakes watershed and survive! The water temperature in the Great Lakes is far too cold for most sharks (including the Bull Shark).

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Based on our research, we rate FALSE the claim that sharks were seen in Lake Erie. Whittington, who took the original photos, confirmed they were taken in Florida. A marine ecologist told USA TODAY a shark could not practically reach Lake Erie let alone survive the fresh water.

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No, there are no sharks in Lake Tahoe.

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A 4-foot alligator was found in Lake Michigan this week, but experts say there should be no worries that the reptiles could take up permanent residence in the Great Lakes the way pythons have made a home in the Florida Everglades. Midwest winters are way too cold for gators.

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Alligators are rarely found in the Great Lakes. Although some alligators thrive in freshwater, it's just too cold in the north for them to survive. They don't typically live farther north than North Carolina. It's unclear how the alligator arrived to Lake Michigan.

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Lake sturgeon are the largest fish in Michigan, and it's not even close. There is a tie for the second-largest fish ever caught in Michigan.

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