14 Shark Agai?ist Man 



Actually, the killer of Matawan Creek may have been caught two days 

 after the attack. Michael Schleisser, a New Yorker who was one of the 

 many shark-hunters prowling the local waters on July 14, was dragging 

 a drift net behind his boat in hope of snagging a shark. He was in Raritan 

 Bay, off South Amboy, New Jersey, less than 4 miles northwest of the 

 mouth of Matawan Creek, when a large shark charged the net. Though 

 quickly enmeshed, the 8V2-foot shark fought savagely, snapping a jaw 

 in which row upon row of teeth glistened menacingly. Schleisser, un- 

 aware that he had caught a shark of the most feared species in the sea, 

 strained to haul the net closer to the boat, and clubbed the shark again 

 and again. Although many other sharks were being hauled in and dis- 

 played by fishermen, Schleisser's shark u^as a killer. Had Schleisser slipped 

 and tumbled into the net, he might have become another victim. For, 

 when he finally subdued the shark, towed it into South Amboy, and 

 ripped it open, he found 15 pounds of flesh and bones in its belly. One 

 of the bones, 1 1 inches long, was identified as the shinbone of a boy. 

 Another fragment appeared to be part of a human rib. There was no 

 doubt that the shark had probably attacked and certainly eaten at least 

 one human being. 



Dr. Lucas of the Museum of Natural History, skeptical about local 

 shark attacks only a few days before, personally identified the remains 

 as human. 



The shark itself was identified, too. It was a Great White shark 

 {Carcharodofi carcharias), feared as a man-eater in tropical waters but, 

 until the period dealt with here, unreported along beaches as far north 

 as New Jersey. Doctor Nichols, an expert who had joined with Doctors 

 Murphy and Lucas in minimizing the possibihty of shark attacks after 

 the first two New Jersey killings, now joined with them in conceding 

 the existence of dangerous sharks in northern Atlantic waters. They 

 granted at least one man-eating shark, for Nichols and Murphy con- 

 cluded that Schleisser's Carcharodon carcharias was probably responsible 

 for all five attacks. Whether or not this conservative estimate was accurate, 

 it is possible that there were many of these dangerous sharks in the 

 waters at the time. 



Schleisser, who had had some training as a taxidermist, mounted his 

 shark and placed it on exhibit in a New York newspaper office. Later, 

 "The Jaws of the New Jersey Man-Eater" wound up in the window of 

 a Broadway fish shop. 



The capture of the apparent killer did not stop the stories that were 

 sweeping the Eastern seaboard. From Florida to Rhode Island came re- 

 ports of sharks. Virtually every ship that came into New York carried 

 a cargo of shark stories. Several hundred sharks were reported off Fire 

 Island, Long Island, and posses were formed to track them down. 



