Summer of 1916. People were terrified.
In a span of just twelve days, five people were attacked by a shark along the coast of New Jersey. Four of them died. It changed how we look at the ocean forever. Honestly, before this happened, most Americans thought sharks were basically harmless scavengers. Scientists even said so.
Then everything changed.
The 1916 Jersey Shore shark attacks weren't just a series of tragic accidents. They were a cultural pivot point. If you’ve ever felt a pang of anxiety while wading into waist-deep water, you’re feeling the legacy of July 1916. This is the "true story" that eventually inspired Peter Benchley to write Jaws, though the reality was arguably much weirder and more terrifying than the movie.
The Myth of the "Harmless" Shark
Back then, the prevailing wisdom was that sharks didn't have the jaw strength to bite through human bone. Frederic Lucas, who was the director of the American Museum of Natural History at the time, was on record saying that there was practically no danger from sharks in our waters.
He wasn't alone.
Wealthy vacationers from Philadelphia and New York flocked to the Jersey Shore to escape a polio epidemic and a brutal heatwave. They felt safe. The ocean was a playground.
Then came July 1.
Charles Vansant, a 25-year-old from Philadelphia, was swimming at Beach Haven. It was early evening. Something grabbed his leg. People on the beach thought he was just playing with a dog at first, but when a lifeguard pulled him in, the flesh was gone from his left thigh. He bled out on a hotel front desk.
Even after that, the news didn't really spread. There was no social media. No 24-hour news cycle. People just kept swimming.
The Matawan Creek Horror
This is where the 1916 Jersey Shore shark attacks get truly bizarre. Most people think sharks stay in the salt water.
Five days after the first death, Charles Bruder was killed at Spring Lake. Then, the "rogue" moved. On July 12, a shark was spotted in Matawan Creek. Now, Matawan is a tidal creek. It's brackish. It’s miles from the open ocean.
An 11-year-old boy named Lester Stillwell was swimming with friends in the creek. The shark took him under. In a move of incredible bravery (or perhaps tragic desperation), a local businessman named Stanley Fisher dove into the creek to find the boy's body.
He found it. But the shark found him, too.
Fisher was bitten in the thigh and died at the hospital. Less than an hour later, further down the creek, a young boy named Joseph Dunn was bitten. He was the only one of the five victims to survive, largely because his brother and friends literally engaged in a tug-of-war with the shark to pull him out.
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What Kind of Shark Was It?
This is the big debate that still rages among marine biologists like George Burgess or the folks at the International Shark Attack File. For decades, the blame was placed squarely on a young Great White shark caught on July 14 by Michael Schleisser in Raritan Bay. The shark was about 7 feet long and, supposedly, had human remains in its stomach.
But wait.
Great Whites aren't big fans of fresh water. They don't usually head miles up muddy creeks.
Many experts now believe a Bull Shark was responsible for the Matawan Creek incidents. Bull sharks are famous for their ability to tolerate fresh water. They have specialized kidneys. They’re aggressive.
So, was it one "rogue" shark acting like a serial killer, or was it a series of different sharks? The "Rogue Shark" theory was popularized by Victor Coppleson in the 1950s, suggesting that once a shark tastes human flesh, it develops a preference for it. Most modern scientists think that's total nonsense. It was likely a perfect storm of a massive heatwave, more people in the water than ever before, and shifting currents bringing predators closer to shore.
The Aftermath and the Birth of a Fear
The panic was real. President Woodrow Wilson actually called a cabinet meeting to discuss the "shark problem." The U.S. House of Representatives even considered a bill to appropriate money to "exterminate" sharks along the coast.
People went out in boats with pitchforks, shotguns, and dynamite. It was a massacre of marine life.
It's hard to overstate how much this event shaped our psyche. Before 1916, "shark" wasn't even a common word in the American vocabulary for a predator of humans. After that July, the shark became the ultimate monster of the deep.
Why This Matters Today
If you're heading to the beach this summer, you're entering a wild ecosystem. The 1916 Jersey Shore shark attacks taught us—painfully—that the ocean isn't a swimming pool.
We’ve learned a lot since then. We know that we aren't actually on the menu for sharks. Most bites are "test bites" or cases of mistaken identity in murky water. But the 1916 events remind us that nature is unpredictable.
Actionable Safety Steps for Swimmers
Don't let history make you afraid of the water, but do let it make you smart.
Avoid swimming at dawn or dusk. That's "dinner time" for many large predators. Visibility is low, and that's when mistakes happen.
Stay away from schools of baitfish. If you see birds diving or fish jumping frantically, there is something underneath them eating. You don't want to be in the middle of that buffet.
Ditch the jewelry. Shiny gold or silver reflects light just like fish scales. To a shark in murky water, your wedding ring looks like a snack.
Stick to guarded beaches. Lifeguards aren't just there for drownings; they watch the water for shadows and patterns. If they tell you to get out, get out.
The reality of the 1916 Jersey Shore shark attacks is more complex than a movie plot. It was a failure of scientific understanding, a freak weather event, and a series of tragic coincidences that created a legend. We don't need to hunt them to extinction, but we do need to respect that when we step into the surf, we are guests in their home.