Do you think if you were swimming in the Mississippi River (the Illinois part), it's possible to be attacked..

Question

...by a shark?

Answer 1

There *are* freshwater sharks, but I'm pretty sure they're all natives of Asia, with the exception of the bull shark which are salt-water natives but have tolerance for fresh water. While the latter are known for traveling upstream, its upstream from a coast...which is pretty darn far from Illinois. :)

Oh hey, check this out... from http://www.elasmo-research.org/education/topics/p_fw_rays.htm:

Compagno and Cook reported that some 43 species of elasmobranch in 10 genera and four families penetrate freshwater environments in Australia, Southeast Asia, western Africa, eastern South America, Central America, and southeastern parts of North America. Coastal elasmobranchs, including some skates (family Rajidae), smooth dogfishes (Triakidae), pajama catsharks (Poroderma spp.), and Sandbar Sharks (Carcharhinus plumbeus) regularly enter estuaries to feed or give birth to young. More impressive yet are stingrays (Dasyatidae, Potamotrygonidae, and others), sawfishes (Pristidae), and the notorious Bull Shark (Carcharhinus leucas), all of which penetrate far up freshwater rivers - the Bull Shark has been recorded some 2,600 miles (4,200 kilometres) from the mouth of the Amazon River - and some even complete their life cycles in freshwater.

Answer 2

No. There are many dams on the Mississippi River. The shark would have to be half salmon and jump the dam.

If someone released a shark in the Mississippi (the only way it could get that far north), it would soon die.

Answer 3

I would say probably not. This would be a long swim for a shark, through fresh and very shallow waters, and sharks would probably not survive long in such an environment.

I would say the far greater danger would be that you would encounter pollution of some sort, although I suspect the river has been pretty much cleaned up in the past few years.

It might also be possible for alligators to migrate upstream that far, and they could be a problem.

Answer 4

possible but not probale. Sharks are a salt water fish and some can tollerate brackish water for a short time. Some can tollerate fresh water but no one know for how long. there have been tiger shark attacks in fresh water rivers in india.....