{"id":910850,"date":"2021-10-22T17:43:54","date_gmt":"2021-10-22T21:43:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=910850"},"modified":"2021-10-22T17:43:56","modified_gmt":"2021-10-22T21:43:56","slug":"fact-check-were-great-white-sharks-seen-in-the-mississippi-river-near-davenport-iowa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/fact-check-were-great-white-sharks-seen-in-the-mississippi-river-near-davenport-iowa\/","title":{"rendered":"FACT CHECK: Were Great White Sharks Seen In The Mississippi River Near Davenport, Iowa?"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">28<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Ffact-check-were-great-white-sharks-seen-in-the-mississippi-river-near-davenport-iowa%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=910850&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><\/div>\n<p>An image <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/photo.php?fbid=3017612585148827&amp;set=a.1385526495024119&amp;type=3\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">shared on Facebook<\/a> purportedly shows two great white sharks found in the Mississippi River near Davenport, Iowa.<\/p>\n<p><span><strong>Verdict: False<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The photo was previously posted on Flickr, where the caption said it showed bull sharks in the R\u00edo Sirena river in Costa Rica. A spokesperson for the Iowa Department of Natural Resources denied the claim.<\/p>\n<p><span><b>Fact Check:<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The Facebook post, which has been shared <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/photo.php?fbid=3017612585148827&amp;set=a.1385526495024119&amp;type=3\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">over 100 times<\/a>, claims the two great white sharks were assumed to have swam 920 miles from the Gulf of Mexico up the Mississippi River near Davenport, Iowa, despite being salt-water creatures.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBelieved to have started as a mating couple, the two are assumed to have swam the 920 mile journey from the mouth of the Mississippi River that is connected to the Gulf Of Mexico,\u201d the Facebook post reads, in part. \u201cOfficials in Davenport have contacted the Iowa Department of Natural Resources and will likely have a team in the river soon to capture the two lost sharks.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The photo does not show two great white sharks in the Mississippi River. Through a reverse image search, Check Your Fact found the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/8023819@N03\/2295802945\/in\/photostream\/\">photo posted<\/a> on Flickr in 2008 with a caption reading, \u201cBull Shark \u2013 Rio Sirena River Mouth.\u201dThe R\u00edo Sirena is located in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/maps\/search\/Rio+Sirena+River+Mouth\/@8.4839286,-83.6057147,14.83z\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Costa Rica<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Bull sharks can survive in brackish and even fresh water, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/usa.oceana.org\/blog\/could-shark-live-lake\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Oceana<\/a>. The Mississippi River is a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nps.gov\/miss\/riverfacts.htm\">freshwater river<\/a>, making it highly unlikely for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationalgeographic.com\/animals\/fish\/facts\/great-white-shark\">great white sharks<\/a>, which, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.smithsonianmag.com\/smart-news\/heres-why-sharks-prefer-salt-water-180953985\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Smithsonian Magazine<\/a>, prefer salt water,&nbsp;to swim in it for hundreds of miles.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have never heard of a white shark in the Mississippi,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/sharkresearch.rsmas.miami.edu\/about\/about-neil\/\">Neil Hammerschlag<\/a>, director of the Shark Research &amp; Conservation at the University of Miami, said in an email to Check Your Fact.<strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/checkyourfact.com\/2021\/09\/03\/fact-check-image-sharks-swimming-pennsylvania-mall\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">(RELATED: Does This Image Show Sharks Swimming In A Pennsylvania Mall?)<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Furthermore, the post claims the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.iowadnr.gov\/\">Iowa Department of Natural Resources<\/a> (DNR) was contacted to deal with the lost sharks. A spokesperson for the Iowa DNR confirmed in an email to Check Your Fact, \u201cThe report of great white sharks in the Mississippi this far north is false.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Similar claims have been <a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20210814061206\/https:\/\/www.react365.com\/5b4297b1bb35f\/two-great-white-sharks-found-swimming-in-laurel-lake-near-london-kentucky.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">circulating<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.snopes.com\/fact-check\/great-white-sharks-spotted-in-mississippi-river\/\">online<\/a> for years, though the supposed location of the sharks vary. The text in the Facebook post matches <a href=\"https:\/\/www.breaking-n.com\/58de9ba5bc7ce\/sharks-spotted-in-mississippi-river-near-davenport-has-been-confirmed-as-great-white-shark.html?fbclid=IwAR2Mp49tt17zxGyVlxPiSMsdkpsNK6unIZh0YlhNMC2h0hz_6qhQ8vh-1LY\">an article<\/a> posted by the website Breaking N. The \u201cAbout\u201d section of the website states, \u201cThese are humorous stories, fantasy, fictional, that should not be seriously taken or as a source of information.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An image shared on Facebook purportedly shows two great white sharks found in the Mississippi River near Davenport, Iowa.Verdict: False The photo was previously posted on Flickr, where the caption &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-910850","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/910850","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=910850"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/910850\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=910850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=910850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=910850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}