Long Beach Island, NJ Shark Attack

[Truck4 48]

Happened this past weekend.

Shark Bite Confirmed As White Shark

BY GREGORY J. VOLPE

MANAHAWKIN BUREAU

SURF CITY — Officials on Long Beach Island received confirmation Wednesday that a 17-year-old surfer from Lacey was bitten by a white shark off 18th Street — New Jersey's first shark attack in 30 years.

George Burgess, curator of the International Shark Attack File, a database that records shark attacks, said he listed Sunday's biting of Ryan Horton as having been done by a white shark — commonly referred to as the Great White.

"The more I look at it, after I got the photographs (of Horton's wound), the more I became convinced that the white shark looks like the real thing," he said. "The wound characteristic is pretty much white sharkish."

He said the wound's depth and teeth markings connect it to the white shark, not the bluefish as some local officials have suggested.

Ellen Johnson, executive director of the Southern Ocean County Chamber of Commerce, said people should avoid deep waters until lifeguards are posted in two weeks — a precaution that would be urged regardless of the shark attack.

"It's unfortunate what happened to this young man," Johnson said. "It's such an isolated incident."

The report Wednesday caused the family to stop talking to the media because of all the reporters who came to their home. But people on the 18th Street beach in Surf City were not panicking.

"It's highly likely to happen anywhere. Sharks are everywhere," said Randy Townsend, 26, a professional surfer, who lives on 18th Street. "There's big fish all over the ocean, you don't know where they'll go."

Townsend said the attack won't keep him, or tourists, out of the water.

"It's not going to stop people from the pure white sand of New Jersey," he said.

Carol Marino, 60, who has a summer home in Surf City, was distressed when she heard of the attack because her son was surfing at the same spot Sunday where Horton was attacked.

"I would be leery of going out too far. But nothing will keep people away from the beaches in the summertime," she said.

Trevor and Clinton Beiswenger, 13-year-old twins on vacation from Pennsylvania, were in the surf Wednesday afternoon, undaunted by talk of a shark.

"We're not concerned," their mother, Michele Beiswenger, said. "They don't go out very far, either."

The incident on Sunday was just the 16th unprovoked attack in New Jersey ever documented, only five have been fatal, Burgess has said. Most of the attacks along the Jersey Shore occurred in 1916. Those attacks inspired the book and movie "Jaws," which debuted in 1975 — the same year as New Jersey's last shark bite, which was off Sandy Hook. The shark attack Sunday was the country's first this year north of Florida.

Shark experts said local officials historically try to dismiss shark bites as bluefish or unconfirmed reports. But they, too, hope people won't stay away from the island because of a rare occurrence.

"Unfortunately, it really impacts the year the thing occurs," said Dr. Richard G. Fernicola, doctor of pain management and author of a book on the real-life shark attacks at the Jersey Shore in 1916. "The problem is not this isolated attack, but whether the environmental conditions create a clustering of sharks. Hopefully, it's simply a freak (occurrence) and that's the end of it."

Surf City Mayor Leonard T. Connors Jr. said he doesn't expect the report will keep tourists away.

"If there's any impact, it would certainly have the impact of being very cautious when you go into an unguarded beach and that would be a good thing," he said. "It's an extremely rare situation."

Burgess agreed.

"It is a rare event, indeed. Once every 30 years is truly a rare event," he said. "People shouldn't be shy about going in the water."

Ray Mombelardi, captain of the Scorpion III, a shark charter boat out of Brick, said he was surprised to hear of the bite.

"The whites don't generally come in this close, although I guess this one did," he said.

Horton couldn't be reached for comment Wednesday. On Tuesday, he told the Asbury Park Press: "I was surfing. I was up, and then I fell off and it felt like a baseball bat had whacked my foot. He bit into my foot and tore off a big part of flesh and skin."

Horton received 60 stitches in his foot and expects a full recovery.