Where Do Sharks Actually Live in the US?
Sharks have confirmed sightings in 22 US states, based on 3,347,324 verified occurrence records.
By Tim, founder of Easy Street Markets. I maintain the wildlife database and verify every animal and source myself.
The states with the strongest confirmed populations are Alabama, Alaska, California, Connecticut, Delaware and Florida, and 16 more. These are real, verified iNaturalist and GBIF occurrence records, not modeled range estimates.
A small number of states (1) have only a handful of unverified or vagrant records, too few to confirm sharks as an established population there.
Confirmed states (22)
- sharks in Alabama
- sharks in Alaska
- sharks in California
- sharks in Connecticut
- sharks in Delaware
- sharks in Florida
- sharks in Georgia
- sharks in Hawaii
- sharks in Louisiana
- sharks in Maine
- sharks in Maryland
- sharks in Massachusetts
- sharks in Mississippi
- sharks in New Jersey
- sharks in New York
- sharks in North Carolina
- sharks in Oregon
- sharks in Rhode Island
- sharks in South Carolina
- sharks in Texas
- sharks in Virginia
- sharks in Washington
Unconfirmed (1)
Only a handful of unverified or vagrant records exist for sharks in New Hampshire, too few to confirm an established population.
Full sharks guides by state