spurs_2108
08-24-2005, 09:14 PM
We all know fishermen can tell some wild stories, but this fish tale has pictures and witnesses, and is making some people nervous.
It sounds crazy, but two different fishermen at Medina Lake have caught two different sharks. No one knows how they got there, and the incidents have experts puzzled.
Biologists have identified the creatures as Atlantic Sharp Nose Sharks, but Medina Lake is hundreds of miles from the shark's closest salt water home.
"It kind of startled me," fisherman James Price told WOAI.
Price is from Lamesa, but he fishes in lakes all over Texas. He says his jaw dropped Monday when he pulled the 37-inch shark out of the water.
"It looked like a bull shark, and I know they can live in fresh water, but they shouldn't be in this lake," said Price.
He says he brought the shark back to shore to show friends and take pictures, just so nobody would think he was nuts. His family was shocked.
"I know because I saw the teeth, and that really scared me," said Connie Price.
This is the second shark caught at Medina Lake. Jet Smith caught one the day before Price caught his.
"It's just crazy!"
That sums up what Texas Parks and Wildlife had to say. Game Warden Danny Shaw says these kinds of sharks shouldn't be in a lake, but they pose no danger.
"It's not a threat to human beings," says Shaw. "It feeds on shrimp and small bait fish."
So there's no thought of closing the lake to swimmers at this time.
As far as how the sharks got here, Parks and Wildlife says that's anyone's guess. They think the sharks were possibly transported from the coast and planted on fish lines or released into the lake as a joke.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9070540/
It sounds crazy, but two different fishermen at Medina Lake have caught two different sharks. No one knows how they got there, and the incidents have experts puzzled.
Biologists have identified the creatures as Atlantic Sharp Nose Sharks, but Medina Lake is hundreds of miles from the shark's closest salt water home.
"It kind of startled me," fisherman James Price told WOAI.
Price is from Lamesa, but he fishes in lakes all over Texas. He says his jaw dropped Monday when he pulled the 37-inch shark out of the water.
"It looked like a bull shark, and I know they can live in fresh water, but they shouldn't be in this lake," said Price.
He says he brought the shark back to shore to show friends and take pictures, just so nobody would think he was nuts. His family was shocked.
"I know because I saw the teeth, and that really scared me," said Connie Price.
This is the second shark caught at Medina Lake. Jet Smith caught one the day before Price caught his.
"It's just crazy!"
That sums up what Texas Parks and Wildlife had to say. Game Warden Danny Shaw says these kinds of sharks shouldn't be in a lake, but they pose no danger.
"It's not a threat to human beings," says Shaw. "It feeds on shrimp and small bait fish."
So there's no thought of closing the lake to swimmers at this time.
As far as how the sharks got here, Parks and Wildlife says that's anyone's guess. They think the sharks were possibly transported from the coast and planted on fish lines or released into the lake as a joke.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9070540/