Dear Query Shark: Realtor Reed Winford suspects something is wrong with the historic house he has agreed to sell for an old client but he thinks at worst it is bad.

Jersey Shore shark attacks of 1. The Jersey Shore shark attacks of 1. New Jersey, in the United States, between July 1 and July 1.

Since 1. 91. 6, scholars have debated which shark species was responsible and the number of animals involved, with the great white shark and the bull shark most frequently cited. The incidents occurred during a deadly summer heat wave and polio epidemic in the United States that drove thousands of people to the seaside resorts of the Jersey Shore. Personal and national reaction to the fatalities involved a wave of panic that led to shark hunts aimed at eradicating the population of "man- eating" sharks and protecting the economies of New Jersey's seaside communities. Resort towns enclosed their public beaches with steel nets to protect swimmers. Scientific knowledge about sharks before 1. The attacks forced ichthyologists to reassess common beliefs about the abilities of sharks and the nature of shark attacks. The Jersey Shore attacks immediately entered into American popular culture, where sharks became caricatures in editorial cartoons representing danger.

The attacks became the subject of documentaries for the History Channel, National Geographic Channel, and Discovery Channel, which aired 1. Days of Terror (2. Shark Week episode Blood in the Water (2. Incidents and victims[edit]. Map of the Jersey Shore attacks. Between July 1 and July 1. New Jersey by sharks; only one of the victims survived.

The first major attack occurred on Saturday, July 1 at Beach Haven, a resort town established on Long Beach Island off the southern coast of New Jersey. Charles Epting Vansant, 2. Philadelphia was on vacation at the Engleside Hotel with his family. Before dinner, Vansant decided to take a quick swim in the Atlantic with a Chesapeake Bay Retriever that was playing on the beach.

Shortly after entering the water, Vansant began shouting. Bathers believed he was calling to the dog, but a shark was actually biting Vansant's legs. He was rescued by lifeguard Alexander Ott and bystander Sheridan Taylor, who claimed the shark followed him to shore as they pulled the bleeding Vansant from the water. Watch Poseidon HD 1080P here.

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Vansant's left thigh was stripped of its flesh; he bled to death on the manager's desk of the Engleside Hotel at 6: 4. Despite the Vansant incident, beaches along the Jersey Shore remained open. Sightings of large sharks swarming off the coast of New Jersey were reported by sea captains entering the ports of Newark and New York City but were dismissed. The second major attack occurred 4.

Beach Haven at the resort town of Spring Lake, New Jersey. The victim was Charles Bruder, 2. Swiss bell captain at the Essex & Sussex Hotel. Bruder was killed on Thursday, July 6, 1. A shark bit him in the abdomen and severed his legs; Bruder's blood turned the water red. After hearing screams, a woman notified two lifeguards that a canoe with a red hull had capsized and was floating just at the water's surface. Lifeguards Chris Anderson and George White rowed to Bruder in a lifeboat and realized he had been bitten by a shark.

They pulled him from the water, but he bled to death on the way to shore. According to The New York Times, "women [were] panic- stricken [and fainted] as [Bruder's] mutilated body ..

Guests and workers at the Essex & Sussex and neighboring hotels raised money for Bruder's mother in Switzerland.[2][3]The next two major attacks took place in Matawan Creek near the town of Keyport on Wednesday, July 1. Located 3. 0 miles (4. Spring Lake and inland of Raritan Bay, Matawan resembled a Midwestern town rather than an Atlantic beach resort.[4] Matawan's location made it an unlikely site for shark- human interaction. When Thomas Cottrell, a sea captain and Matawan resident, spotted an 8 ft (2. Around 2: 0. 0 p. Lester Stilwell, 1. Wyckoff dock when they saw what appeared to be an "old black weather- beaten board or a weathered log."[6] A dorsal fin appeared in the water and the boys realized it was a shark.

Before Stilwell could climb from the creek, the shark pulled him underwater.[7]The boys ran to town for help, and several men, including local businessman Watson Stanley Fisher, 2. Fisher and others dived into the creek to find Stilwell, believing him to have suffered a seizure. After locating the boy's body and attempting to return to shore, Fisher was also bitten by the shark in front of the townspeople, losing Stilwell in the process.[8] His right thigh was severely injured and he bled to death at Monmouth Memorial Hospital in Long Branch at 5: 3. Stilwell's body was recovered 1. Wyckoff dock on July 1. The fifth and final victim, Joseph Dunn, 1.

New York City was attacked a half- mile from the Wyckoff dock nearly 3. Stilwell and Fisher. The shark bit his left leg, but Dunn was rescued by his brother and friend after a vicious tug- of- war battle with the shark. Joseph Dunn was taken to Saint Peter's University Hospital in New Brunswick; he recovered from the bite and was released on September 1.

Reaction[edit]As the national media descended on Beach Haven, Spring Lake, and Matawan, the Jersey Shore attacks started a shark panic.[1. According to Capuzzo, this panic was "unrivaled in American history," "sweeping along the coasts of New York and New Jersey and spreading by telephone and wireless, letter and postcard."[1. At first, after the Beach Haven incident, scientists and the press reluctantly blamed the death of Charles Vansant on a shark.[1. The New York Times reported that Vansant "was badly bitten in the surf ..

Still, State Fish Commissioner of Pennsylvania and former director of the Philadelphia Aquarium James M. Meehan asserted in the Philadelphia Public Ledger that the shark was preying on the dog, but bit Vansant by mistake.[1. He specifically de- emphasized the threat sharks posed to humans: Despite the death of Charles Vansant and the report that two sharks having been caught in that vicinity recently, I do not believe there is any reason why people should hesitate to go in swimming at the beaches for fear of man- eaters. The information in regard to the sharks is indefinite and I hardly believe that Vansant was bitten by a man- eater. Vansant was in the surf playing with a dog and it may be that a small shark had drifted in at high water, and was marooned by the tide. Being unable to move quickly and without food, he had come in to bite the dog and snapped at the man in passing.[1. The media's response to the second attack was more sensational.

Major American newspapers such as the Boston Herald, Chicago Sun- Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Washington Post and San Francisco Chronicle placed the story on the front page. The New York Times' headline read, "Shark Kills Bather Off Jersey Beach".[3] The growing panic had cost New Jersey resort owners an estimated $2. A press conference was convened on July 8, 1. American Museum of Natural History with scientists Frederic Augustus Lucas, John Treadwell Nichols, and Robert Cushman Murphy as panelists.

To calm the growing panic, the three men stressed that a third run in with a shark was unlikely, although they were admittedly surprised that sharks bit anyone at all. Nevertheless, Nichols—the only ichthyologist in the trio—warned swimmers to stay close to shore and to take advantage of the netted bathing areas installed at public beaches after the first attack.[1. Shark sightings increased along the Mid- Atlantic Coast following the attacks.