Bull shark in Los Cabos

How to recognize it

Heavy-bodied, with a thick head, small round eyes and a short, broadly rounded snout that is much shorter than the mouth is wide. Plain gray above and white below. The first dorsal fin is large, broadly triangular and pointed, and starts over or just behind the rear of the pectoral fins. The second dorsal is fairly big, about a third the height of the first, and there is no ridge of skin on the back between the two dorsals. Young sharks have dusky fin tips that fade as they grow.

Biology

Bull sharks live in warm coastal seas around the world and are famous for entering estuaries, lagoons and rivers: they have been reported 3,700 km (2,220 mi) up the Amazon and more than 3,000 km (1,800 mi) up the Mississippi. In the eastern Pacific they range from southern Baja California to Ecuador and possibly Peru, usually in water less than 30 m deep, though they go down to about 164 m. At Cabo Pulmo, researchers who tagged 44 bull sharks of 1.6 to 2.8 m between 2015 and 2019 found them in the park about a third of the time, most often from March to May and generally absent from September to November.

They eat bony fish, other sharks and rays, crabs, squid, sea turtles and carrion. Pups grow attached to a yolk-sac placenta for 10 to 11 months, and litters run from 1 to 13 pups of 56 to 81 cm, usually born in coastal lagoons, river mouths and other low-salinity nurseries. Bull sharks mature at roughly 1.6 to 2.3 m after 10 to 15 years and can live more than 30 years.

How it's caught in Los Cabos

We don’t target bull sharks. Near Los Cabos most people meet them on a dive at Cabo Pulmo, where fishing isn’t allowed. Shark dives there go with an accredited park guide, and divers stay low on the sandy bottom, without touching or blocking the sharks; swimming or snorkeling with them is not allowed.

If one is hooked by accident, we release it. Best practice: circle hooks that aren’t stainless steel, keep the shark in the water, unhook it quickly or cut the leader close to the hook, and hold it facing forward while the boat moves slowly so water runs over its gills. Never lift a big shark by the tail or gills.

Rules, records & conservation

Top Anglers practices catch-and-release for all sharks.

Don't confuse it with

The Pacific lemon shark, also common at Cabo Pulmo, is yellowish brown, and its second dorsal fin is almost as big as the first. Silky, dusky and Galápagos sharks are slimmer, with longer snouts and a low ridge of skin on the back between the dorsal fins. The tiger shark has a squarish snout and dark bars or spots on its back.

Questions

By Max VargasTop Anglers, Cabo San Lucas · international judge at big game fishing world championships · reviewed October 2026

Sources

• FishBase: Carcharhinus leucas
• Smithsonian STRI: eastern Pacific fishes, Carcharhinus leucas
• Florida Museum: bull shark
• Lara-Lizardi et al. 2024, bull sharks in Cabo Pulmo (PeerJ)
• ISRA factsheet: Cabo Pulmo Important Shark and Ray Area
• Ayres et al. 2024, orcas and sharks in Cabo Pulmo (Frontiers in Marine Science)
• Pasos Acuña 2018, diving and bull shark behavior in Cabo Pulmo (CIBNOR thesis)
• Asúnsolo-Rivera 2016, sharks of Cabo Pulmo reef (UABCS thesis)
• Los Cabos tourism board / CONANP: Cabo Pulmo visitor guide
• FRDC bull shark report card 2023 (IUCN, CITES)
• Florida Museum, International Shark Attack File: species implicated
• IGFA world records: bull shark
• NOM-017-PESC-1994, 2013 amendment (DOF)
• Shark closed season agreement, 2012 (DOF)

Top illustration: Top Anglers. Photos: iNaturalist contributors, credited on each photo.