sharks at the jersey shore, The Steven Spielberg movie adaptation of Peter Benchley\'s 1974 novel, sharks at the jersey shore Jaws, is a pop culture classic. Almost everyone remembers watching the over-eager marine biologist, the water-wary Chief of Police, and the veteran fisherman of questionable sanity, as they hunted the giant rogue great white shark responsible for a bloody reign of terror in the waters of the tourist beach community of Amity Island. Many of us can\'t step into the ocean without hearing the unforgettable \"Jaws shark theme music.\" What many don\'t know, is that Benchley was inspired by a 12 day period in the summer of 1916 along the New Jersey coast, during which 5 shark attacks (4 of them fatal) occurred. These attacks changed America\'s perception of sharks, and led to much controversy amongst scientists.
In addition to the sweltering heat that summer, the northeastern US was in the middle of a polio epidemic. Many people flocked to the seaside resorts and summer homes. At this time, shark attacks weren\'t even a remote concern; many scientists didn\'t even believe a shark was capable of killing or seriously wounding a human.
On July 1st, 25 year old Charles VanSant went swimming in the ocean at a hotel in the resort town of Beach Haven, when he was severely bitten on the legs by a shark. He was rescued by a lifeguard, who claimed that the \"large shark\" followed them back to shore. He quickly bled to death back at the hotel.
Several days later, on July 6th, there was another attack off the coast of Spring Lake (45 miles north of Beach Haven). Charles Bruder, a 27 year old Swiss employee of a seaside hotel, was bitten with such force that his legs were severed. Like VanSant, lifeguards pulled him to shore - but he had died of massive blood loss before they reached dry land.
These first two attacks, while disturbing, weren\'t conclusively attributed to sharks. Additional theories abounded amongst the locals - such as overly aggressive sea turtles or German U-Boats.
The other three attacks all occurred on July 12th in Matewan Creek, 30 miles north (and 16 miles inland) of Spring Lake. A creek would seem a very unlikely place for ONE sharks at the jersey shore shark attack, much less three in one day. Earlier that day in Matewan, an old captain/fisherman named Thomas Cottrell declared that he\'d seen a shark in the creek, but he sharks at the jersey shore was ignored.
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