172 Sharks: The Animal Answer Guide
Everything changed in 1916, a story detailed in Capuzzo’s Close to Shore:
The Terrifying Shark Attacks of 1916 and Richard Fernicola’s Twelve Days
of Terror: A Definitive Investigation of the 1916 New Jersey Shark Attacks. In
July of that year, over a span of less than two weeks, four people along New
Jersey shores and creeks were killed by a shark, or sharks. The shark or
sharks involved were either White Sharks or Bull Sharks, and many eye-
witnesses were present to confirm the perpetrators as sharks. The attacks
ended, causally or coincidentally, when a 2.25-m (7.5-ft) White Shark was
captured in the area. It contained human body parts. These incidents in-
spired Peter Benchley’s book Jaws.
About 75 unprovoked shark attacks on humans occur each year world-
wide. Of these, about five (7%) are fatal. Somewhat more than half these
annual attacks, about 40, occur in the United States, with about one-third
in Florida; other states where attacks typically occur include Hawaii, Cali-
fornia, South and North Carolina, Texas, Oregon, New Jersey, and Geor-
gia. All U.S. coastal states except Maryland have seen incidents. In the
more than three centuries since 1670, only 44 fatalities have occurred in
U.S. waters; over the past decade the United States has averaged less than
one fatal attack a year.
These statistics come from the International Shark Attack File (ISAF), a
catalogue managed by your second author (GB). ISAF is based at the Florida
Museum of Natural History, at the University of Florida. ISAF has kept rec-
ords of shark attacks for more than 50 years, including accounts from the
mid-1500s. Staffers at ISAF receive reports and read news stories daily. All
leads are referred to a network of biologists, doctors, and other informants
stationed near coastlines around the world. A local representative makes
contact with the victim of the attack—or the authorities, in the case of a fatal
bite—and gathers as much information as possible. A standard Shark Attack
File questionnaire is completed, with data on weather, tides, and how both
the shark and the victim behaved before, during, and after the attack. Annual
summaries are available at http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/sharks/isaf/isaf.htm.
Any shark can inflict a serious wound; these are, after all, predators that
feed and defend themselves with their powerful teeth and jaws. ISAF has
records of 27 different species involved in unprovoked attacks. But some
sharks (and many rays) are involved in provoked attacks where people han-
dle or step on them or feed them.
Positive identification of a shark species involved in an attack is un-
common and difficult. (Not surprisingly, most victims are too distracted to
notice key identification characters during an attack.) In rare instances, a
tooth fragment left in the victim or the surfboard facilitates identification.
That said, three species have been identified as responsible for more than
half of all attacks: White, Bull, and Tiger sharks.
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