Surviving History: Jersey Shore Shark Attacks of 1916
Sharks have several rows of sharp teeth They lose 1 tooth per week 4 Introduction
The Jersey Shore refers to beach areas in New Jersey Between July 1 and 12 1916 several shark attacks took place Four people were killed One person was injured Sea captains had reported seeing large sharks They saw these sharks swimming off the New Jersey coast But their reports were ignored There was a heat wave in 1916 This was before home cooling systems Thousands of people went to the beach They wanted to cool off They swam in the ocean The shark attacks became national news They were in newspapers People talked about them in letters Sharks were on everybody’s minds 5
Before 1916 people thought shark attacks were myths 6
The shark attacks caused people to panic Beaches closed down Hotels closed down Some people were scared of going to the beach Some people went on shark hunts No one really knows what happened There are a lot of theories Theories are ideas Experts can’t agree They don’t know which type of sharks attacked They don’t know how many sharks attacked Some experts think the attacks were done by bull sharks Bull sharks can swim in freshwater Some experts think the attacks were done by great white sharks 7
