by Joe DuPont
First Smallmouth Bass, then Walleye, and now SALMON SHARKS! When are our salmon and steelhead going to catch a break? That’s right, you read correctly, Salmon Sharks! Calls and e-mail came pouring in yesterday claiming they found a shark washed up on the shores of the Salmon River near Riggins. With so many calls coming in, we felt the need to investigate, and this is what we found. Judge for yourself.
By the look of it, this does appear to be a Salmon Shark. Salmon Sharks can grow up to 10 ft long and weigh up to almost 1,000 lbs. As indicated by its name, Salmon Sharks like to feed on salmon. So, should we be concerned with this shocking discovery and potential impacts to our salmon and steelhead populations?
Well………. seeing no sharks have been observed swimming up our fish ladders lately, and the only known shark that can live in freshwater is the Bull Shark, I think it is safe to assume that somebody dropped this on the shore for a good laugh. I certainly have laughed about it. This would have been a great April’s Fools Joke.
So, if you were one of those people who saw this fish on the shore or maybe somebody shared the photos with you, rest assured, we have no sharks swimming around in Idaho.
