The Riverine Bull Sharks of Iran and Iraq | A Brief Modern History

Bull sharks probably aren’t the first animal that comes to mind when you think about river fauna in Iraq and Iran. In fact, I’d wager that many Westerners would be hard-pressed to name, on the fly, any of the many organisms that inhabit these two countries’ network of waterways.

Decades of geopolitical tumult have kept much of the environmental heritage of Iran and Iraq shrouded in ambiguity. Yet, in recent years, both countries have seen glimpses their intriguing natural history legacy surface with the help of the internet.

For me, one of the most surprising parts of that legacy is the fact that Bull sharks (Carcharhinus leucas) frequent regional freshwater waterways as far inland as Baghdad. This is not a recent development either, as evidenced by written Arabic accounts from as early as 1263 C.E. that hint at the presence of river-running shark. Western writers, however, don’t seem have seriously taken notice until the mid 20th Century.

Sharks near Ahwaz and Basrah during the Second World War

“If you ever go to Ahwaz, don’t bathe in the river!” That was the emphatic recommendation of Lt. Col. R.S. Hunt of the Royal Medical Corps in a Communication published in the Journal of the Royal Army Medical Corps in 1951.

During the Second World War, Hunt was stationed at the 21 Combined General Hospital in the small town of Ahvaz, Iran. It was there that he made an unsettling observation: there were sharks in the river and they were deadly.

At the time Hunt was stationed in Ahvaz, it was a small community along the Karun River and secured by the British 10th Indian Infantry Division. They had arrived as part of a wider Allied campaign to establish a foothold in the Middle East. Ahvaz was of particular interest because of its oil pumping station and connection to the regional railroad. Thus, in August 1941, the British military established a dedicated presence in the area. Part of that presence was the hospital where Hunt took his post in September of 1941.

One of his first duties there was to assume responsibility for a group of surgical patients previously under the care of the Field Ambulance service he relieved. Among those cases was a Nepalese mercenary (colloquially called a “Gurkha soldier”) who had undergone a forequarter amputation (amputation of the arm, scapula, and clavicle) following a “shark bite.”

Hunt was shocked. The alleged shark attack occurred near his station in Ahvaz; approximately 80 miles upriver from the Persian Gulf. Surely, this the was result of some other mechanism of injury.

Hunt wasn’t alone in his skepticism. Prior to his arrival, other British commanders had received reports of terrible injuries inflicted by an unknown animal occupying the freshwater creeks and rivers of the region. In their mind, the obvious culprit was the crocodile, but medical authorities disagreed. From their perspective, “…experience was entirely against the injuries being due to crocodile attack. These grip, hold on, and gradually drag their victims into the water. The present series of injuries indicated a savage wrenching and avulsing attack by some creature armed with numerous shark, inward-curving teeth” Their assessment, coupled with local anecdotal evidence, eventually demonstrated that the savage attacks were, in fact, the result of sharks patrolling the region’s rivers.

Back in Ahvaz, Hunt was putting the pieces together on his own and came to the same conclusion. Over the course of his service in the region, he would treat 12 more attacks, all on civilians. He even managed to witness two of those attacks first hand and was present for the capture of a shark measured, on his account, at 4ft 10 in from tip to tail. It was clear that the Karun River was far from safe and that the sharks within them were particularly brazen.

Iran wasn’t the only region experiencing shark troubles. Medical units in Basrah, Iraq were also recording encounters with river-dwelling sharks. Basrah is situated on the Shatt al-Arab, a river formed by the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers some 68 miles from the Persian Gulf. The presence of sharks in the large Shatt al-Arab, though surprising, didn’t seem quite as extraordinary as their presence in Ahvaz. Nonetheless, it still caused a shock for western military units unfamiliar with the local wildlife.

Other Historical Accounts of Sharks in the Rivers of Iraq and Iran

Though arguably the most complete, dramatic, and well-known account of bull sharks in the freshwater rivers of Iraq and Iran, Hunt’s documentation does not stand alone. Modern accounts of sharks in the rivers had been circulating since at least 1902 and a 1924 expedition even managed to capture a specimen in Baghdad.

The capture of a shark in Baghdad must have been absolutely astonishing since Baghdad is over 520 miles up the Tigris River. The specimen was decapitated and the head eventually made its way to the Natural History Museum in London where it is remains today.

More contemporary accounts are also available. In 1953, a man lost an arm when he was attacked by a gray-colored shark estimated to be 1.5 meters in length while he was swimming in the Karun River near Ahvaz.  

A similar fatal incident occurred in the same river in 1954, but several miles deeper inland near Shushtar.  Such records of shark attacks continue through 1985 and one study published in 1988 set the grand total of these shark incidents to 34 serious attacks and 17 fatalities with the authors suggesting that many more minor encounters have gone undocumented.

Unfortunately, almost all historical data on the presence of Bull sharks in the region are derived from attack reports and little to no research in terms of their overall ecology appears to be available.

Sharks in the Rivers of Iraq and Iran Today

Searching the available record in both the Arabic and Persian languages also provides little information, though searching Google utilizing the Arabic term for ‘shark’ (القرش) does yield a small collection of images depicting injuries sustained from shark attacks in the region.

Contemporary information on bull sharks in the rivers of Iraq and Iran is very limited. At the original time of this writing, only two papers provide a semblance of a record that is accessible through western scientific databases. One was published in 2012 and the other in 2013.

This lack of readily accessible information is, of course, understandable given the political instability of the region. Compounding the matter is an apparent culture of fear surrounding the presence of these animals. Consider this brief report of a bull shark captured by a fisherman in southern Iraq in 2012:

(Reuters) – A two-meter 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 recognized the fish as a shark because I have seen one on a television program,” 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.

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.

-Reuters News Agency (2012)

Regional academics like Dr. Mohamed Ajah, assistant dean of the college of science at Thi Qar University in Nassiriya, offer a more measured view. He suggests that while the shark’s presence is unusual given that barriers in the estuaries usually prevent such movement, the presence of these animals is would not be part of some unorthodox U.S. military strategy.

While it is clear that there is a continued interest in studying sharks in Iraq and Iran (as suggested by surveys like one conducted by A.H. Ali of the University of Basrah in 2013) it is unlikely that the scientific community will be afforded more insight until the region once again experiences some measure of sustained sociopolitical stability and focus can be shifted toward scientific exploration.

Acknowledgment

Massive thanks to Yolande Ferreira and the NHM Image Resources team for their efforts in securing the bull shark (C. leucas) specimen photographs used in this post.

This post was updated from an earlier version published in October 2014

References and Further Reading

• Ali, A. H. (2013). First record of six shark species in the territorial marine waters of Iraq with a review of cartilaginous fishes of Iraq. Mesopotamian Journal of Marine Science, 28(1), 1-16.
• Coadt, B.W., and Frough P. “Shark attacks in the rivers of southern Iran.” Environmental biology of fishes 23.1-2 (1988): 131-134.
• Coadt, B. W., & Al-Hassan, L. A. (1989). Freshwater shark attacks at Basrah, Iraq. Zoology in the Middle East, 3(1), 49-54.
• Cocking, G.  Personal Accounts by Members of Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service and Territorial Nursing Service. The National Archives WO222/189, Item 1D, India to Iraq and Persia.  Link: http://bit.ly/1BPQijW
• Hunt, R. S. (1951). The sharks of Ahwaz. Journal of the Royal Army Medical Corps, 97(2), 79-85.
• Moore, A. B. (2012). Elasmobranchs of the Persian (Arabian) Gulf: ecology, human aspects and research priorities for their improved management. Reviews in Fish Biology and Fisheries, 22(1), 35-61.
• Iraqi fisherman nets shark 160 miles from sea – Reuters, 2012