Ironbound Great White shark swims close to infamous Jersey Shore shark attack site

An almost 1,000 lb great white shark has been spotted near to the location of the Jersey Shore shark attacks of 1916, that are mentioned in the film Jaws by Chief Brody (Roy Scheider) and Matt Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss) to Mayor Vaughn (Murray Hamilton).

Many believe those attacks - which were the first recorded shark attacks in US history - served as inspiration for Peter Benchley and his novel on which the Steven Spielberg film is based. Others say that is absolutely not the case.

Not that Ironbound's movements should be cause for concern or alarm, the 20-year-old 12 feet 4 inches long shark is simply doing what he and his fellow sharks do, migrate.

After spending the winter months in Florida and the Gulf Coast he and his fellow great whites are swimming back north for the summer to the feeding grounds off Canada and the north eastern US coastline.

A shark, not THE shark

However some media are choosing to label this yearly, regular occurrence as "stalking" or "prowling close to the United States coast."

Guys, he is just swimming, that's like saying someone driving in their car on the road is kerb crawling at speed.

And yes, he may be swimming by where the Jersey Shore shark attacks took place over 100 years ago, but he's not sightseeing or returning to the scene of a crime as a descendent of the original alleged perpetrator.

No doubt thousands of sharks have made that exact same trek, journeying by that location, without causing so much as a ripple in the water, or in the media.

This is not one of the sharks from Jaws or one of its sequels, you know, works of Hollywood fiction.

Words by Dean Newman

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