Bull shark numbers in the northern Gulf are rising by “almost every objective metric,” Mississippi State researcher Marcus Drymon said, even as the species remains near threatened globally.
A 478.6-pound bull shark topped last week’s Alabama Deep Sea Fishing Rodeo, and Drymon said some of the largest sharks in the event’s history have been recorded in the past two or three years.
That rebound follows decades of overfishing that shrank shark sizes by the 1980s; rodeo records suggest recovery began only in the last 15 years as catches grew larger again.
Mobile Bay helps sustain the population because pregnant females enter in spring to give birth, with pups spending their first year or two in the bay before moving offshore.
Shark attacks remain extremely rare, researchers said, though swimmers are advised to leave the water if they spot a bull shark and avoid dawn or dusk in murky estuaries.