'Suicidal' Shark Caught 150km Upriver

October 26, 2007

Release from: News.com.au

An Iraqi fisherman has netted a two-metre shark from the brown waters of the Euphrates river in southern Iraq.

The 110kg white shark was caught yesterday near the village of Al-Fidhaliyah, close to the city of Nasiriyah and more than 150km from Gulf waters.

Doctor Nazah Rasool, dean of the College of Science in Nasiriyah where the animal was taken, said the find was rare but the shark did not survive for long.

Sharks like whales, dolphins and other animals that live in an ocean habitat need salt water for survival.

“It seems the shark was committing suicide by coming into the Euphrates as it is used to live in deep, salty waters,” Dr Rasool said.

He said the fisherman had delivered the shark to his college as there was nothing he could do with it.

“It is the first time that we have found a shark in the river,” he said. “It is rare.”

Bull sharks, a species with a grey belly, can survive for a short while in fresh water and have been know to attack bathers in various rivers, even as far upstream as Baghdad in the Tigris, Iraq's other mighty river.