A Maryland fisherman has a whopper of a fish tale . . . except this one really was this long and it didn’t get away.
Willy Dean set his nets on Monday at Cornfield Harbor, three miles north of Point Lookout, at the mouth of the Potomac River in Maryland. He was fishing for cow-nosed rays for a Solomons Island Marina biologist. The next morning, his net was full but not with rays.
Dean discovered that he’d managed to snare an 8-foot long shark, which he believes to be a bull shark. Bull sharks are known for their aggressive natures. ”We had an interesting morning bringing it in,” Dean said. “It was quite a fight.”
This would not be the first time a bull shark has been found in the Potomac.
Over Labor Day weekend in 2001, a 9 1/2- foot bull shark attacked and killed a 10-year-old boy in the shallows off Sandbridge. The shark then went for the boy’s father as they were trying to bring the boy to shore, only stopping the pursuit when it ran aground on the shore.
Sharks are not uncommon sights in the Potomac – blacktip shark or sandbar shark are often spotted in Virgina in the summer – however bull sharks are seen about every 20 years or so. Bull sharks’ favorite places to swim are in shallow waters, the same waters frequented by beach-goers. And while humans are not their desired cuisine, that doesn’t stop them from going after us if we happen to be available prey targets.
Hopefully, Dean’s shark was a solo adventurer in coming up the Potomac just in time for this year’s Labor Day weekend. It’s possible that he might have just heard that there were so many others like him upstream that he felt compelled to come visit DC.
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