We haven’t always been this fearful of sharks. There was a time just after the turn of the twentieth century when most swimmers hardly gave a second thought when they went swimming. Some scientist argued whether sharks were even strong enough to bite through human bone, much less kill someone. But in 1916 it all changed with a series of attacks off the coast of New Jersey. July 1916 was the first shark attack in American history, that is, recorded human history. Attacks were really not highly known until these highly publicized series of incredible attacks in New Jersey in 1916.

That saga began July 1, 1916 when Charles Vansant was attacked by a shark in Beach haven in Southern New Jersey. Only five days later, July 6, Charles Bruder, was attacked and killed off the coast of Spring lake New Jersey. He was nearly bitten in half in front of a beach crowded with people. A few days later, possibly the same shark swam up the Matawan Creek just south of New York City, Maimed one swimmer and killed two more. This was a headlined grabber, possibly just like that of the attacks that occurred in the summer of 2001, which time magazine named the summer of the shark. The media went crazy.
Reports of the shark attack pushed aside reports from World War I, replacing them with tabloid style exclamations about the sea wolves threatening swimmers lives. A massive hunt for the killer ensued up and down the Jersey Coast and in the creek itself. Two days after the attacks in Matawan creek, a nine foot great white shark was captured off the coast of south Amboy New Jersey. Fifteen pounds of human flesh and bones were found in its belly. No further attacks were reported and beaches soon returned to normal. But the seed of caution had been planted, the threat of sharks had become real in the minds of many.

Throughout the 50’s 60’s and early 70’s , sharks pretty much stayed out of the headlines, that is until 1974 when Peter Benchley’s novel Jaws was published. Suddenly, there was a reason to fear the surf again, even if it was fiction. A year later the movie came out, forever altering our perception of the shark threat.