The Conservation Report

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Shark photographed in Saginaw Bay (Lake Huron)

SHARK SIGHTINGS UP 212% IN LAKE HURON; 40% IN ERIE

(AP) Chicago IL – Officials at the Great Lakes Shark Center in Chicago report a substantial increase in the number of sharks spotted in the lower Great Lakes in 2011. The Lower Great Lakes includes Lakes Ontario, Erie, and Huron.

Sightings are down for Lake Superior, which authorities regard as too cold to sustain shark habitat for any length of time, as well as Lakes Michigan and Ontario.

“In 2010 we had 14 verifiable or reliable reports of sharks in Lake Huron. In 2011 that number jumped to 29,” said Arthur Holwertz, associate director of the Great Lakes Shark Center, which operates out of the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago. He is quick to add, though, that the agency does not know whether this represents an increase in the number of sharks or an increase in the number of sightings by vigilant boaters.

The agency does not track individual sharks. Only one tagged shark has ever been found in the Great Lakes – a bull shark captured in Lake Ontario in 1967. That shark had been originally tagged off North Carolina.

In addition to the 29 Lake Huron sightings, reports were received of 14 sharks in Lake Erie; 12 in Lake Ontario; 8 in Lake Michigan, and one in Lake Superior, a decline since 2010’s reports of two sharks in the northernmost lake.

Sharks have also been reported in the Chicago River, the Au Sable River (Michigan), and the Maumee River (Ohio). Unverified spottings have been reported in the Finger Lakes region of New York, which feed into Lake Ontario.