What do you know about New Jersey Shark Attacks of 1916?
During July of 1916, off the coast of New Jersey there were 5 shark attacks within a week and a half period which lead to 4 deaths and one injured person. The shark responsible was a Great White Shark or possibly a Bull Shark who was actively going after humans, this was discovered when it was caught then killed and had its stomach examined where they found human remains. These shark attacks lead to a fear of sharks within the American public which just kept building up until the release of Jaws in 1975 which was loosely based off of this event. This sent the public into a shark killing and catching frenzy which has greatly impacted shark populations in US waters. Today, many shark species are declining because of overfishing and culling which will lead to massive impacts on ocean ecosystems. These 5 shark attacks and the pain caused by the 4 deaths and one injured has also brought much more pain onto shark species. This connects to our lectures because the pain that sharks feel goes unnoticed because of humans perception of them which ties into how we don't know what pain others are feeling.
This is both social and psychological because the social impacts of the shark attacks was for everyone to fear sharks since they have the potential to attack and then the psychological impacts are the negative connotations that many people have based on these shark attacks or Jaws. I would rate this a 10 on the pain scale for sharks and a 5 on a pain scale for humans. The actual event only killed 4 people, but hundreds of sharks died because of how humans reacted. #GEOG203
