The Jersey Shore shark attacks of 1916 were a series of shark attacks along the coast of New Jersey, in the United States, between July 1 and 12, 1916. The incidents occurred during a deadly summer heat wave and polio epidemic that drove thousands of people to the seaside resorts of the Jersey Shore. Only one of the victims survived the attacks; only one person was injured in the attacks. Since 1916, scholars have debated which shark species was responsible and the number of animals involved.
About Jersey Shore shark attacks of 1916 in brief
The Jersey Shore shark attacks of 1916 were a series of shark attacks along the coast of New Jersey, in the United States, between July 1 and 12, 1916. The incidents occurred during a deadly summer heat wave and polio epidemic that drove thousands of people to the seaside resorts of the Jersey Shore. Since 1916, scholars have debated which shark species was responsible and the number of animals involved, with the great white shark and the bull shark most frequently cited. Personal and national reaction to the fatalities involved a wave of panic that led to shark hunts aimed at eradicating the population of \”man-eating\” sharks. Resort towns enclosed their public beaches with steel nets to protect swimmers. The attacks became the subject of documentaries for the History Channel, National Geographic Channel, and Discovery Channel, which aired 12 Days of Terror and the Shark Week episode Blood in the Water. Only one of the victims survived the attacks; only one person was injured in the attacks. The Jersey Shore attacks immediately entered into American popular culture, where sharks became caricatures in editorial cartoons representing danger. The first major attack occurred on Saturday, July 1 at Beach Haven, a resort town established on Long Beach Island off the southern coast ofNew Jersey. The next two major attacks took place in Matawan Creek near the town of Keyport on Wednesday, July 12. The attacks forced ichthyologists to reassess common beliefs about the abilities of sharks and the nature of Shark attacks.
Sightings of large sharks swarming off New Jersey were reported by sea captains entering the ports of Newark and New York City but were dismissed. The town of Matawan resembled a Midwestern town rather than an Atlantic beach resort. Matawan’s location made it an unlikely site for interactions between sharks and humans. One boy, Lester Stilwell, was playing in the creek with his pet dog when they saw what appeared to be an old, black, weather-beaten shark. The boys ran to help, believing him to have suffered a seizure, and several men, including Stanley Fisher, dived into the creek to find him underwater. Before the boys could climb out of the water, the shark pulled him underwater, and it was a dorsal fin appeared in the water and appeared to have been a shark. A woman notified two lifeguards that a canoe with a red hull had capsized and was floating just at the water’s surface. After hearing screams, a woman notified the lifeguard that a man had been bitten by a shark in Spring Lake, New Jersey. A man was bitten in the abdomen and severed his legs; he bled to death on the manager’s desk of the Engleside Hotel at 6: 45 PM. The man was identified as Charles Bruder, 27, a Swiss bell captain at the Essex & Sussex Hotel. Bruder’s blood turned the water red. Despite the Vansant attack, beaches along the Jersey shore remained open. The second major attack took place on Thursday, July 6, 1916, at the resort town of Spring Lake.
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This page is based on the article Jersey Shore shark attacks of 1916 published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 03, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
