This has been a summer of impossibilities: the Montauk Monster, a Bigfoot body, which turned out to be a fake, and most recently, a blacktip shark (Carcharhinus sp.) was pulled from Lake Michigan.  However, sharks aren’t supposed to be in Lake Michigan; although, according to the Global Shark Attack File, in 1955 George Lawson had his right leg bitten off by a bull shark (C. leucas) while swimming in Lake Michigan. Bull sharks are freshwater specialists, but blacktip sharks are not.

Certainly, the blacktip shark was a fake, joke, or pet that was released. The images (courtesy of Douglas Tesner/Record-Eagle) show the shark, which was allegedly found in Michigan’s West Grand Traverse Bay. From the Traverse City Record-Eagle:

There aren’t any witnesses, but Fasi, of Traverse City, said he pulled the roughly 2-foot shark from the bay about 100 yards west of Clinch Park Marina at about 5 p.m. He found the shark in about 25 feet of water, he said. It was dead, but wasn’t frozen.

“I could wiggle its tail, pry open its mouth, look at its teeth,” he said. “It didn’t look like it had any decomposition.”

Fasi threw the fish in his freezer and called the Michigan Department of Natural Resources.

Cadillac-based DNR fisheries biologist Mark Tonello said the incident likely is a “big fat hoax.”