A 16-year-old girl killed in a shark attack was swimming in a river, not the sea. Bull sharks – considered by some experts to be the most dangerous – are the rare species that swim in fresh water.

Photo of a bull shark taken during a diving expedition in Tiger Beach, Bahamas.Carlos Grillo/Getty Images

• A teenager in Perth was killed by a shark after jumping into a river to swim with dolphins, officials said.

• Officials believe it was a bull shark, a species known for its aggressiveness and ability to swim in freshwater.

• Bull sharks have been documented swimming up the Mississippi River as far north as Illinois.

Although shark attacks are rare, they most commonly occur in the ocean, off the coast of beach destinations like Florida. But when a 16-year-old girl was killed in a shark attack in Australia on Saturday, she wasn’t swimming in the sea.

Stella Berry was with friends on jet skis in the Swan River in the city of Perth in Western Australia when her friends said she decided to jump in the water to swim with dolphins that had been spotted nearby. Her friends witnessed the attack, and Australian authorities called it an “extremely traumatic” incident for everyone involved.

Don Punch, the Australian fisheries minister, said Sunday it was too early to confirm the species of shark involved but said it was believed to be a bull shark.

“We know that bull sharks, in particular, invade estuarine and freshwater river systems, so it’s likely that that could be the case,” Punch told ABC News.

Bull sharks are considered by many experts to be the most dangerous sharks in the world. They are found in waters around the world and prefer to hunt day and night in shallow coastal areas – where people also like to swim. Bull sharks can range from 7 to 11 feet in length or more, weigh anywhere from 200 to 500 pounds, and are known for their aggressive nature — hence their name.

Unlike most shark species, bull sharks can swim in freshwater for extended periods, so they have been known to enter estuaries and swim up. A study published in 2021 found that two bull sharks even swam up the Mississippi River as far as Illinois on separate voyages in 1937 and 1995.

The study says “rare occurrences” of bull sharks have been reported in rivers on five continents. The authors said the “physiological adaptations” that allow the sharks to swim in freshwater, in addition to the fossil record, suggest that bull sharks have long since invaded freshwater ecosystems.

Although you’re more likely to encounter a bull shark in a river than any other species, attacks remain uncommon.

Punch told ABC that the last fatal bull shark attack in Perth’s Swan River was 100 years ago, in 1923.

“There were only six recorded historical attacks in the river and that would be seven,” he added.

The latest deadly attack has prompted some calls for additional research into bull sharks in the river, with Johan Gustafson, a marine ecologist at Griffith University, telling Perth radio station 6PR that tagging the fish would help researchers better understand them.

“Believe it or not, we still don’t know much about them – we know the broad movements and broad-based behavior of bull sharks but not the fine details – I think it’s a wonderful idea,” Gustafson told the broadcaster .

In 2022, there were 57 unprovoked shark attacks on humans worldwide, according to the Florida Museum of Natural History’s International Shark Attack File. The US leads the world with 41 recorded shark attacks last year, while Australia was second with 9.

Bull sharks, great white sharks and tiger sharks are the most common species involved in an attack.

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