By JF Grodeska
Each summer, any number of local publications run the story of the infamous 1916 shark attacks along the Jersey Shore. Between July 1 and July 12 of that year, four people were killed and one severely injured. Charles Vansant, 28, was attacked in Beach Haven July 1 and bled to death. On July 6 Charles Bruder, 27, was bitten and bled to death on the beach in Spring Lake. On July 12, in the shallow, brackish waters of Matawan Creek, Lester Stillwell, 11, and Watson Stanley Fisher, 24, were killed by a shark and Joseph Dunn, 14, was severely injured after being bitten.
The local reaction to these attacks was to initiate hunts to eradicate dangerous sharks and protect the Jersey Shore tourism industry. The problem was that no one actually knew the species of shark responsible for the deaths. And nobody cared. Wholesale slaughter ensued.
In 1973, author Peter Benchley published a novel inspired by those 1916 shark attacks and the exploits of fisherman Frank Mundus, who caught a great white shark weighing 4,550 pounds off the shore of Montauk, Long Island in 1964.
That novel was “Jaws.”
Worldwide sales are estimated at 20 million copies. In 1975, the novel was made into a movie and became the highest-grossing film in history at the time. Both relate the story of a great white shark that terrorizes a beach resort town and the men who set out to kill it. It is very similar to the story of the 1916 shark attacks.
A Brutal Legacy
After the release of the movie “Jaws,” shark fishing tournaments began to spring up in just about every coastal community in the United States. The number of tournaments increased each year (although now most are catch and release). In combination with commercial fisheries that indiscriminately kill sharks as a bycatch of their operations, or hunt them directly for their fins, humans kill some 50 to 100 million sharks each year, according to Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute.
But in reality, sharks kill only a handful of humans each year worldwide, mostly through mistaken identity. Sharks have fins, not hands. So they bite to determine if an object in the water is food. The problem is that a great white shark can bite with a power of up to 4,000 pounds per square inch. Even a test nibble can severely wound or kill a human being. Sharks, in general, do not seek humans as prey.
Reports from various agencies indicate that global shark populations have declined over the last 50 years by 50% to 99%. Most studies agree on a 70% estimate, with few offering more positive indications of stable and healthy shark populations. An estimated 25% of all sharks and rays are threatened with extinction and millions are killed annually. One hundred eighty-one shark and ray species are threatened with extinction on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List. Of 10 shark species common to New Jersey waters, eight are included on that list. The sand tiger shark is listed as critically endangered and declining, as is the scalloped hammerhead; the dusky shark is listed as endangered and declining; the blue shark is listed as near threatened and declining. Populations listed as vulnerable and declining include the porbeagle, the shortfin mako Atlantic subpopulation, the common thresher and the white shark.
These are our neighbors.
Sharks at Work
After years of study, we still don’t know a lot about sharks. They are elusive and tend to swim away from boats. We are not even sure that sharks die a natural death of old age. But we do know that the majority of sharks die at the hands of humans.
“The reality is that if the ocean dies, we die – because the ocean provides all of those things which make it possible for us to live on the planet,” said Paul Watson, the founder of Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, an anti-poaching and marine conservation group.
Sharks are an indicator of ocean ecosystem health. Sharks are apex predators and as such maintain the species below them in the food chain, removing the weak and sick and keeping the balance with competitors to help ensure species diversity. If they become extinct, the chain reaction will slowly strangle the world’s oceans.
Sharks shift their prey’s spatial habitat, which changes the feeding strategy and the diets of other species. By executing spatial control over their environment, sharks indirectly maintain seagrass and coral reef ecosystems. The decline in shark populations has led to a decline in coral reefs and seagrasses and has impacted commercial fisheries.
A good example of sharks helping the maritime economy is the case of North Carolina fisheries. The loss of great white sharks increased the ray populations, a species below sharks in the food chain. As a result, the hungry rays ate all the bay scallops, forcing the fishery to close. Without scallops to eat, the rays moved on to other bivalves. After the unbound rays ate the scallops, they began to eat quahogs. Quahogs are a key component in clam chowder. The loss of quahogs is forcing many restaurants to remove this American classic from their menus.
The disappearance of scallops and clams demonstrates that the elimination of sharks can cause harm to the economy in addition to ecosystems.
Sharks are also influencing the economy through ecotourism. In the Bahamas, a single live reef shark is worth $250,000 in dive tourism versus a one-time value of $50 if caught by a fisherman. One whale shark in Belize can bring in $2 million in dive tourism over its lifetime.
Scientists have also focused on applying shark science to human health in cutting-edge research that may lead to several advances in wound healing, and the treatment of cancer, hospital infections, Alzheimer’s disease and fibrosis, among others.
Rather than being cast in the role of villains, sharks should be considered heroes.
The article originally appeared in the May 25 – 31, 2023 print edition of The Two River Times.
