21/08/2026
In 1937, a bull shark was caught in Alton, Illinois, after swimming upstream through the Mississippi River. An astonishing 700-mile journey from the nearest ocean.
It wasn't an isolated case: in 1995, a fisherman caught another bull shark near Rush Island, Missouri, 58 years after the previous sighting in that same river.
And there's something even stranger: in 1955, a boy named George Lawson was reportedly bitten by a bull shark while swimming in Lake Michigan, nearly 2,000 kilometers of waterway from the nearest coast. The case was recorded in the Global Shark Attack File, though to this day no one has been able to confirm it with solid evidence.
The scientific explanation? Experts believe these sharks use the river and canal system connecting the Mississippi to the Illinois River, a waterway they can travel thanks to their unique tolerance for fresh water.
🦈 Next time you think a shark only lives in the ocean... remember one made it all the way to the heart of the United States.