Dozens of shark and ray species are known to spend some or all of their life cycle in freshwater environments, but they remain among the least studied and least protected.According to the IUCN, 76% of non-marine sharks and rays in the Indo-Pacific region are threatened with extinction — about twice the rate of their marine relatives.Rivers and estuaries are heavily impacted by human activities, and many non-marine sharks and rays have already disappeared from parts of their historic range, with some at risk of vanishing before their conservation needs are understood.
The Vashishti River, originating in the biodiversity-rich Western Ghats and flowing into the Arabian Sea along India’s western coast, has long supported traditional fishing communities. But in 2023, local fishers encountered something entirely unexpected. As they hauled a gill net into a boat, a gray body, still making faint movements, emerged tangled in the mesh, and then another surfaced beside it. By the time the net was lifted aboard, three bull sharks (Carcharhinus leucas) were tangled inside.
The video of the incident quickly spread across social media, drawing renewed scientific attention to the presence of sharks in inland and estuarine waters. “This is the first documented report of sharks from the Vashishti River, although historically sharks and rays have been recorded from several major Indian river systems,” Priyankar Chakraborty, an independent marine and wildlife researcher in India, told Mongabay.
