Mysterious Man

The warm waters of Florida create a nice home for millions of tropical marine species. The top dogs in these waters are sharks. There are over 500 species of sharks and some of the most common found in Florida include nurse sharks, bull sharks, hammerhead sharks, lemon sharks, sharpnose sharks, sandbar sharks, bonnet head sharks, blacktip sharks, and tiger sharks. Identifying what type of shark you've pulled onto your boat is usually fairly easy as they will have different head/nose shapes; fin size, shape, and location; and special or specific body markings. For example, hammerhead sharks have heads that are shaped like hammers! Shocking, I know. Tiger sharks get their name for having black stripes covering part of their body. This is especially noticeable in their young. Lemon sharks, one of my personal favorites, have a yellowish skin color and two equally sized dorsal fins. Sometimes, like in our situation today, you catch a shark and have no idea who it is. What we did know for sure was that he was a boy and measured about 4 feet and 10 inches long. His nose was rounded similar to a nurse shark but had wide, strong jaws. The tail resembled close to that of a sandbar shark, and so did his dorsal fins, but they were too close together to be a true match. The appearance of this guy stumped even our shark expert on board. Some suggested he was a weird looking bull shark, and some thought he might have been some sort of dusky shark. Maybe he was a hybrid of both, if something like that was even possible. Maybe he was a foreigner, invading the Florida reefs. Or maybe Maddi and I hauled in and discovered a completely new species, (probably not). Whatever the case, this guy was a mystery and I’m intrigued to see the results of his DNA test so we can know for sure.

P.S. always kiss your shark bait on the mouth for good luck 😘

http://www.seasquaredcharters.com/sharks-of-the-middle-florida-keys/

http://floridakeysflats.com/shark/