After a long time away from surfing, I started again last year with my 15 year old son, and we've been having a blast. I was lucky to find Swell Info as we live 40 minuets from the coast and the swell reports are great. Today I have a story to share. We got to Lavallette at about 5;30 this morning, and a fisherman let us know that he had seen something large in the surf, but was unsure of what it was. We have been seeing lots of Dolphin over the last few months, so figured it for a Dolphin. We were in the water for over an hour and the same fisherman kept waving his arms and pointing. I would look, unfortunately almost into the sun, didn't see anything, figured it for a Dolphin and kept surfing the best waves we've seen in weeks. Finally I heard my son and his friend scream and head for shore in quite a hurry, just as they have done in the last couple of months when Dolphin have come close to us, so I figured it for a Dolphin. After another ride I noticed my son, his friend, and the fisherman jumping up and down on the beach and pointing to my right. I squinted into the sun and saw, about 20 yards away, a fairly large gray dorsal, followed by the gray tail-fin with a black tip going slowly side to side...a Shark. As I started to paddle in it circled around between me and the beach, and came up my left side about 8' away heading in the opposite direction and I got a close look at a 6-7' shark with a black tipped tail. After making it in, the fisherman said that earlier he saw the shark head right for me, go under me, and then resurface on the other side, and I never saw a thing. Afterward I suggested to the boys that we head down the coast to Seaside and try it there, but they were having none of that, I hope I can get them back in the water tomorrow.
Good Idea This story is the best way to reduce the crowded line-up's. CORRECTION: A shark was spotted in Seaside!
Wow. Nice story. I would chalk that up to good kharma. He was just checking you out. If you were in any real danger, he would have taken a nice chunk out of you and your board, rather than checking you out. At least its a shark story with a happy ending. Don't get me wrong, there is nothing positive about encountering sharks in the ocean, but you have witnessed something that most of the world will never come close to. Another kink in the armor.
Pretty cool story.Its a very humbling experience.Although shark attacks are rare in this area you never know.Its hard to believe that the idea of jaws actually came from N.J..Glad you made it a shore.
Whoa, quite the story to tell. Hope you can get your boys back out in the water. Glad to hear the happy ending, always a plus.
I wanna call BS on this. Seriously, he joined the site today, I was a few blocks down from Lavalette at 6 in the morning and saw nothing like this.
hoax-us-poke-us i haven't posted on this forum in a long time, due to the lack of credibility of many of the users, but why would anyone bother to make this up? if you havent had a shark encounter on the east coast, well, you don't get out that often... seeing a black tip is "less" likely than other species around here, but they're here. personally, i'd be more worried about bulls and tigers (sharks, that is) as they are far more aggressive and more adaptive to our coastal conditions. if you are worried about sharks, dont surf... crowds and waves be damned, right?. i'd rather focus on september and october and the overall atlantic sea temps... just wondering, why the capital "D" in dolphin? are they truly our overlords???
Today at my local a fin kept popping up here and there. I heard it was a "shark," a "dolphin," and a "whale." When I finally got a good look at it myself, I ruled out shark and dolphin. It actually may have been a juvenile whale... arched back like a dolphin, but the dorsal was curved like a a boomerang. Never saw anything like it, but I'm pretty sure it was neither a dolphin nor a shark. My guess would be Minke whale... 16-18 ft in length, only about 50 yards off the end of a jetty. Moved slower than a dolphin, and a bit bigger. Too much rake to the fin to be a dolphin.
I saw something similar but i just thought it was a dolphin. I was in Deal tuesday and it was rite off the jetty, It didnt look that big though. As far as sharks go I've been hearing a lot of reports of thresher sharks locally brought in by the same good conditions that brought in all the stripers this year. Ive been pretty nervous about them when I've been spearfishing lately although I know they don't pose much of a threat to us. I still wouldn't want to see one swimming up to me in the water whether Im on a board or carrying a spear gun.
this is legit i would have to say. this was the first thing i was thinking of, and wondering if anything had been posted about it on here before i got on. my buddy did a morning session in seaside park this morning, and spotted one, and then another guy told him he spotted it up towards ortley. this is unusual. i haven't heard of any sharks on the jersey coast since 01, but i'm sure there could have been some out there since. i remember the water being way warmer that year. i mean it had to be 70 at manasquan inlet by the 1st of june that year. i was trunking it by mid may, and would drive down every day after work. that was back when i was still living in north jersey up home in bergen county. that was the summer that they had all kins of shark attacks across the east coast. in virginia beach, and north carolina.
calm down, sistah....2009 report.... Following recent trends, Florida again had most of the unprovoked attacks in the United States. The total of 32 attacks was equal to the 32 reported in 2007. a reversion to comparable yearly levels occurring earlier in the decade prior to a 2004-2006 three-year decline. Additional U.S. attacks were recorded in Hawaii (2), South Carolina (3), North Carolina (3), and California (1). Within Florida, Volusia County had the most incidents (22), the highest total since 2001 (22). This area normally has higher numbers of shark-human interactions as a result of very high aquatic recreational utilization of its attractive waters by both Florida residents and tourists, especially surfers. Other Florida areas having attacks in 2008 were Brevard (4), and Lee, Nassau, Palm Beach, St. Lucie, and St. Johns counties (one each). Surfers/windsurfers (56.6% of cases with victim activity information) and swimmers/waders (35.8%) and were the recreational user groups most often involved in shark attacks in 2008. Less affected were snorkelers (7.6%). Despite continued human population growth and increased interest in aquatic recreation, the number of shark attacks has generally leveled off, averaging 63 per year worldwide since reaching a high of 79 in 2000.
The story is true. It was a Thresher Shark. It was confirmed by a bunch of surfers in Lavallette who moved to the beach I was on to get away from it. A fisherman hooked the shark on Brown Ave. They are pretty much harmless. Another Thresher was hooked off the pier in Seaside yesterday. Bigger than the one in Lava.
I think you're right on the species. We have a close friend who's a marine biologist at Rutgers. She was over here with a bunch of books soon after we got home trying to identify what it was. She had decided that it was probably a bull shark. But I kept telling her that the tip of the tail was thin at the top. From the pictures I've seen of the thresher tail, it had to be.
...WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!!!!! DON"T GO IN THE WATER!!!! (but man, trunkin' it was pretty cool this weekend - love the warm water!) ... but if you're thinking about going out, DON"T GO IN THE WATER!!!!! .....WE"RE ALL GONNA DIE!!!!! (from something... eventually...!) SAFETY TIP: don't forget the lesson we all learned from Steve Irwin - don't pick up sting rays and let them sting you in the chest!
good one, salt man SAFETY TIP: don't forget the lesson we all learned from Steve Irwin - don't pick up sting rays and let them sting you in the chest!
saw a pod of dolphin riding the waves in on Saturday and breaching out past the break. They're pretty big.
I was surfing North End of Brigantine yesterday. I was pretty far out cuz i was ridding a longboard, but i def saw a 4 ft either sand or bull shark. it was a lil scary..
Chronicle of the the Jersey Shore shark attacks of 1916.... ...Close to Shore: A True Story of Terror in an Age of Innoncence, Author: Micheal Capuzzo
