For decades, Florida residents have reported sightings of a legendary hammerhead shark along the state’s southern Gulf coast.

Although large sharks near Florida’s shores are not uncommon, sightings of this particular hammerhead have estimated it to be over 20 feet in length and weighing more than 2,000 pounds, classifying it as an extraordinary shark.

This tale has been mostly fueled by fishermen operating along the Gulf coast in areas such as Tampa Bay and Sarasota. However, the shark’s moniker tends to surprise those who are aware of it.

“Old Hitler.”

Reports from the Naples Daily News indicate that these stories originated during World War II when German U-boats appeared off the eastern coast of the United States. During this period, several American ships were sunk by German submarines near Florida, leading the U.S. military to use dirigible blimps for coastal surveillance.

However, private ships sailing these waters grew paranoid about being attacked by Germans, and they often reported seeing unidentified watercraft around shipping ports — though many of these sightings were ultimately found to just be large hammerhead sharks swimming near the surface.

And with commercial fishing becoming more popular after the war, fishermen began to encounter large hammerheads increasingly often, bringing a rise in fishing tales about the giant hammerheads.

Many of these stories described a shark “as dark as a shadow and covered in scars,” the Naples Daily News reports. Others said the shark had machete wounds and a knife stuck in its fin — the result of messing with a fisherman’s haul and bumping his boat.

In some stories, the scar on Old Hitler’s head is shaped like a swastika: a result of his encounter with a boat propeller, a harpoon, or perhaps even a fight with another mean-mannered shark.

But is there any truth to these old fishing tales?

Many anglers in the region have their own tales to tell about the creature, though some of these stories could be true.

The FWC reports that great hammerhead sharks — the largest of their species — are known to frequent inlets and bay mouths along Florida’s Gulf Coast. They’ve been known to reach nearly 20 feet long and can live over 20 years.

In addition, great hammerheads reportedly rank seventh for unprovoked attacks on people, and they often get inadvertently tangled up in fishing lines by fishing boats along the coast.

As such, it could be that the legend evolved from several different great hammerhead sharks who had run-ins with fishermen near the coast.

“When people see a very large hammerhead shark, they just want to say, ‘That must be Old Hitler,’” Director Bob Hueter of the Center for Shark Research at the Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota told the Tampa Bay Times in 2007. “I think it’s just a catchy nickname.”

Regardless of the truth, it makes for an entertaining Florida monster myth.

For more crazy stories and legends from across Central Florida, be sure to check out News 6’s “Florida Fables” page by clicking here.

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