Michigan’s Favorite Shark From Shark Week is a Brute

I grew up near the Gulf of Mexico, so avoiding sharks has always been a back-of-mind priority of mine. Thankfully, now that I'm in Michigan, that underlying fear goes away when I take a trip to the Great Lakes.

I know I'm in the minority here, though, because America loves sharks. While most of the country has cut the chord from cable television, during the summer, Shark Week is still the king of the sea and TV.

Shark Week on the Discovery Channel, and now Discovery+ as well, dominates screens across the country as viewers learn more about the terrors swimming through the oceans.

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While not an annual viewer myself, it's easy to see the attraction of the annual takeover. Sharks are ferociously cool creatures and are much more easily appreciated through a screen than in person.

After another successful Shark Week extravaganza, hosted by John Cena, BetMGM took the opportunity to analyze which states gravitated toward each breed of shark during the week.

As has been the case for the past few years, Google searches for different breeds of sharks spiked during Shark Week, and some states had more interest in others. For Michigan, our interest is with the mighty Bull Shark.

Michigan wasn't alone in fishing up more information on the predator. Bull Sharks see a 265% spike in searches during Shark Week compared to the rest of the year. On top of that, Michigan was one of 15 states that showed the most interest in Bull Sharks. The most popular shark, earning top search scores in 16 states, was the Greenland Shark.

According to the National Wildlife Federation, Bull Sharks are one of the most dangerous breeds of sharks because of their proximity to beaches and their ability to migrate up rivers.

Interestingly, Bull Sharks can survive in freshwater, which means they could, in theory, breathe in the Great Lakes just fine. The problem is that it's far too cold for them to hang around if they were released in the lakes.