Sharks in the water

Gotta love the punchline to this story from Iraq about a shark:

A two-metre shark has been caught in a river in southern Iraq more than 200 km (160 miles) from the sea.

Karim Hasan Thamir said he was fishing with his sons last week when they spotted a large fish thrashing about in his net. "I recognised the fish as a shark because I have seen one on a television programme," he told Reuters.

The shark was pulled from the mouth of an irrigation canal that joins the Euphrates River. The Euphrates joins the Tigris River further east to form the Shatt al-Arab waterway which flows south past Basra into the Gulf.

Dr. Mohamed Ajah, assistant dean of the college of science at Thi Qar University in Nassiriya, said barriers in river estuaries usually prevented sharks swimming upstream.
***
Locals blamed the U.S. military for the shark's presence.

Tahseen Ali, a teacher, said there was a "75 percent chance" Americans had put the shark in the water.

"This is very frightening for us. Our children always swim in the river and I believe that there are more sharks. I believe that America is behind this matter," said fisherman Hatim Karim.

I blame space aliens.

Another take on the tale here, placing the blame one a "suicidal shark" and which, instead of pointing fingers, provides some useful information:

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. (emphasis added)

Silly Reuters.

When bull sharks attack upriver video from National Geographic here, which notes that finding bull sharks up rivers isn't all that unusual.