Have Sharks Ever Been Found In The Missouri River?
Just last week I came across an old movie that STILL creeps me out...
...I remember when I was living in San Diego, back when I was in school, summer vacation meant almost every day hanging out at the beach. Nothing better than sprinting through the sand toward the big blue ocean. I repeated this a zillion times, right until one certain day in 1975. That's pretty much the day I stopped going into the water, heck I even avoided swimming pools for a while.
The day that many people started avoiding the ocean was June 20, 1975
That was the day the movie "JAWS" hit the big screen. I of course had never seen a shark in person and I wasn't about to take that chance again. So I started thinking, maybe it's time to "suck up all of my fears", buy a bathing suit, and head out to our Missouri River, after all, should be plenty safe don't you think? Right? Hey listen, I just need to know that IF I get my nerve up, I won't hear this eerie music when I slowly submerge myself into the Missouri River...
So I decided to do some investigating to get an answer to the question "Have Sharks Ever Been Found In The Missouri River?"
According to Upi.com - as far as Bull Sharks are concerned, "...there were two known sightings in the Mississippi River over the past century: one in Alton, Ill., in 1937 and another in Missouri in 1995" - water temperatures play a huge part in all of this - themeateater.com reported "The Missouri and Mississippi rivers regularly dip below 35 degrees for months at a time, but a bull shark prefers tropical waters that stay above 69 degrees" ( Hey so do I for that matter )
Thank you Mike Heithaus...
...a marine biologist at Florida International University, says "that even though the sharks' behaviors may change, the risk of someone seeing one so far from the ocean is very small" Ok, well I feel much better now, however, if some random pontoon drifts by blaring the "Jaws" theme, I'll be on my way immediately to the top floor of the Capitol building ASAP - I should be safe there.
Quiz: Do you know your state insect?
Gallery Credit: Andrew Vale