Shark Attacks in New Jersey

A big, old record with a quiet modern half

New Jersey's coast is a long sand barrier facing the open Atlantic, backed by bays and tidal creeks and fronted by shallow, productive water that warms to bathing temperature by late June. Every summer that water fills with menhaden and bluefish, and behind the bait come the state's resident summer sharks: sandbar sharks, which use Delaware Bay and the back bays as nurseries, sand tigers on the inshore wrecks and inlets, smooth dogfish everywhere, and, further out, blue sharks, threshers, makos and occasional white sharks passing between the Carolinas and New England. Add one of the most densely used shorelines in the United States, with the whole New York and Philadelphia population within two hours of the beach, and a party-boat and surf-fishing culture that dates back to the nineteenth century, and a record of 57 entries over two centuries is about what the geography would predict.

What the geography does not predict is the shape of that record. Twenty-nine of the 47 dated entries since 1900 come from the four decades between 1900 and 1939, when the fishing fleet was largest, the bathing beaches were newest and every hooked shark that gashed a deckhand made the newspapers. The 1910s alone hold 9 entries and 4 deaths, all four in the first twelve days of July 1916. After 1940 the file thins out fast: one entry in the 1940s, one in the 1950s, a cluster of 6 in the 1960s, then one entry in the 1970s, one in the 1980s and none at all in the 1990s. The modern period, 8 entries since 2000 and none fatal, is dominated by surfers and bodyboarders with nipped fins and small cuts, and by one case the file itself says was not a shark bite.

So the honest summary of New Jersey is two records in one. There is the historical file, heavy with provoked fishing incidents and carrying the most notorious series of fatal attacks in American history, and there is the modern file, in which the state's sharks and its millions of bathers share the same water every summer with almost no contact. Geographically the weight sits in the north: Monmouth County, from Sandy Hook to Manasquan, holds 21 of the 57 rows and four of the six deaths, while the southern counties, Cape May and Atlantic, hold the newest cases and no deaths at all.

Where the Jersey Shore's incidents happened, county by county

Every New Jersey row in the database carries a beach, town or stretch of water, and most carry a county. The county totals are lopsided: Monmouth County 21 entries with 4 fatal, the latest from 1975; Ocean County 10 with 2 fatal, the latest from 2019; Atlantic County 10 with none fatal, the latest from 2011; Cape May County 5 with none fatal and the newest entry in the state, from 2023; and a single Hudson County row from Bayonne in 1884. The places below follow the table.

• Matawan Creek, Monmouth County (12 July 1916)The table's darkest day, in a tidal creek the file places ten miles from the sea. A ten-year-old boy was killed while swimming, with legs and torso bitten; a 24-year-old man was killed, thigh bitten, while recovering the boy's remains, by a shark the file puts at 3 metres; and a twelve-year-old swimming off the clay-company brickyards at Cliffwood had his lower left leg bitten and surgically amputated, in a case said to involve a 2.7-metre shark. Brackish tidal creeks are exactly where a large shark, white or bull, can follow fish inland in July.
• Beach Haven and Spring Lake (1 and 6 July 1916)The first two deaths of that fortnight: a 24-year-old swimmer killed at Beach Haven in Ocean County on 1 July with his left leg bitten, and a swimmer killed at Spring Lake in Monmouth County on 6 July, both thought by the file to involve a 2.6-metre white shark. Spring Lake has one more row, a female foot recovered from a shark on 27 August 1913, and a boy bitten on the heel at Atlantic City on 30 June 1916 opens the same summer.
• Sandy Hook, the Shrewsbury River and the HighlandsThe oldest corner of the Monmouth County record. A man who fell overboard from the ship Gem in Sandy Hook Bay in June 1829 is the state's first fatal entry; in mid-August 1886 sharks caught in a menhaden net ripped it and bit the boat in the same bay, and that same month clammers in the Shrewsbury River were chased by three 3-metre sharks, one of which rammed their boat, while another shark that attacked a boat there was killed and towed ashore. The river adds a no-injury sailing case from July 1904. On the ocean side, a swimmer at Sandy Hook survived in August 1931, and the county's most recent row is a surf angler at Sandy Hook with tooth marks in the left leg in October 1975, with shark involvement unconfirmed.
• Sea Bright, Sea Girt, Long Branch and the Monmouth bluefish groundsSea Bright has a swimmer towing an empty barrel with a lacerated left knee in September 1917 and a fishing boat struck by a shark in 1923; off the same town, fishermen were cut and bruised by netted, harpooned and gaffed blue-nose sharks in November 1928, and a boat 20 miles out met a whiptail shark, queried as a thresher, with no injury in July 1926. Sea Girt has a swimmer nipped on the leg in July 1931 and the worst modern Monmouth injury, a 24-year-old standing in knee-deep water on 21 August 1960 whose lower right leg was bitten and amputated ten days later. Offshore, a 2.4-metre, 500-pound blue shark leapt aboard a bluefish boat off Long Branch in July 1936, a mako jumped into a tuna boat off Brielle and bit the cabin door in July 1941, a shark chasing fish struck a boat a mile off Navesink in August 1931, and a hooked shark damaged a boat off Normandie-by-the-Sea in August 1890.
• Ocean County: Long Beach Island, Seaside and Bay HeadThe county's second death is a swimmer killed at Seaside on 24 August 1926, and two days earlier a fourteen-year-old at Seaside Park had a knee ripped to the bone. Long Beach Island supplies the 1916 Beach Haven death, a surf angler at Barnegat Light bitten on the right leg while chasing a sand shark from his line in August 1954, the June 2005 Surf City surfer whose foot injury was announced by the ISAF as a young white shark bite and then found to involve no shark, and a 67-year-old bodyboarder at Ship Bottom in May 2019 with no injury in an encounter the file calls probable. Bay Head adds a bodyboarder whose swim fin was bitten in November 2013, Manasquan a 24-year-old standing in the water with left thigh and hand bitten by a 1.8-metre shark in August 1962, Lavalette a man's leg recovered from an 800-pound shark in August 1913, and the water between Mantoloking and Point Pleasant a hooked 16-foot, 800-pound shark that gashed an angler's leg in August 1932.
• Atlantic County: Atlantic City, Brigantine and AbseconTen rows and no deaths. Atlantic City itself has four: a swimmer who grabbed a shark's tail and was bitten on the left arm in July 1902, an angler with lacerations to the right arm and shoulder from a 9-foot shark in September 1903, a man swimming from a launch after a day's fishing who lost three toes of the right foot in late August 1905, and the 1916 heel bite; a fifteen-year-old swimming at the Steel Pier had a right thigh lacerated in August 1965. Beyond the resort, a clammer in Reeds Bay at Brigantine was cut by his own speared fish in June 1966, after which a 2.1-metre pregnant sandbar shark was caught, a wade fisherman at Egg Harbor had his boot bitten in July 2011, sharks were shot at off Longport in 1891, and Absecon holds the two oldest rows in the county, a swimmer with leg lacerations and a man harassing a shark, both in July 1842.
• Cape May County: Ocean City, Sea Isle City and Stone HarborThe newest entry in the file is here: a fifteen-year-old surfer at Stone Harbor with lacerations to the left foot and calf on 21 May 2023. Ocean City has two beach rows, a 25-year-old swimming 3 miles offshore whose right leg was severely lacerated in August 1960 and a fifteen-year-old body surfer bitten on the back in July 1980, and the offshore fishing grounds add three provoked cases: an angler off Ocean City whose ankle was broken by a 500-pound boated shark's tail in June 1932, another 10 miles off Sea Isle City whose knee was bitten by a boated 250-pound dog shark two days later, and two men hoisting sharks aboard off Ocean City in 1922 and 1923 whose legs were broken by the tail.
• Not on a beach at all: Camden, the Turtle Back Zoo and the far offshoreThree rows happened nowhere near the surf. A 58-year-old diver at Adventure Aquarium in Camden who backed into a 2.4-metre sand tiger received lacerations and puncture wounds to the right calf and ankle in December 2009; a twelve-year-old had a finger nipped by a captive epaulette shark while feeding sharks and stingrays at the Turtle Back Zoo in April 2022; and a 4.6-metre shark leapt into a dory 50 miles offshore in June 1935 and lacerated a fisherman's arm. Ventnor, a 60-centimetre sand tiger's minor hand injury in July 2017, Bayonne's hand bitten from a boat in 1884, Raritan Bay's arm bitten while fishing in 1895 and a wader's chest abrasion in lower Delaware Bay in 1907 round out the map.

Every recorded shark incident in New Jersey

The grid, decade chart, cards and full table below are generated from the SharkSider database, which combines the International Shark Attack File and the Global Shark Attack File with local reports verified by the team, and is refreshed weekly. The summary counts all 57 entries; the decade chart covers the 47 entries dated 1900 or later. The 10 entries before 1900, from the 1829 overboard death in Sandy Hook Bay to an arm bitten in Raritan Bay in 1895, appear at the end of the table.

• Recorded incidents57 (47 since 1900)
• Fatal6
• Years covered1829–2023
• Since 20008 incidents, 0 fatal
• Most common activitySwimming & wading
• Most identified sharkEpaulette shark

The most recent incidents

• 21 May 2023 · Stone Harbor, Cape May County, New JerseySurfing — Lacerations to left foot and calfShark not identified · not fatal
• 9 April 2022 · Tutle Back Zoo, New JerseyFeeding sharks & stingrays — Finger nipped by captive shark provoked incidentShark: Epaulette shark · not fatal
• 20 May 2019 · Ship Bottom, Ocean County, New JerseyBody boarding — No injuryShark: Shark involvement unconfirmed but considered probable · not fatal
• 23 July 2017 · Ventnor, New JerseyActivity not stated — Minor injury to handShark: Sandtiger shark 2' · not fatal
• 7 November 2013 · Bay Head, Ocean County, New JerseyBody boarding — No injury, swim fin bittenShark not identified · not fatal
• 25 July 2011 · Egg Harbor, Atlantic County, New JerseyWade fishing — No injury, shark bit bootShark not identified · not fatal

Every recorded incident

Four notes on reading this table. First, the 6 fatal rows are the 1829 overboard case, the four July 1916 swimmers and the 24 August 1926 Seaside swimmer; nothing since 1926 is fatal. Second, a large share of the rows are not attacks on people in the water: 15 are marked provoked, mostly fishermen handling sharks, 12 record no injury, and several are boats struck, rammed or boarded by sharks. Third, three rows describe remains recovered from sharks, two on 27 August 1913 at Lavalette and Spring Lake and one offshore in August 1928, and for the two 1913 cases the file states that shark involvement before death is unconfirmed, so none of the three is counted as fatal. Fourth, treat the activity buckets in the summary with care: the surfing and boards group holds 10 entries, but only five are surfers or bodyboarders; the rest are two surf-fishing cases, the 1829 overboard case and the two men hoisting sharks aboard off Ocean City, which the grouping catches by keyword. The Place column names the beach, town or stretch of water for every row, and the county for most of them.

The sharks named in the New Jersey file

Sand tiger shark. Named in the 2009 Camden aquarium case, a 2.4-metre animal that a diver backed into, and in the 2017 Ventnor entry, a 60-centimetre juvenile that caused a minor hand injury. The sand tiger is the most visible large shark on the Jersey coast, hanging almost motionless over wrecks and in the inlets from May to October. Its mouthful of narrow teeth looks fearsome but it bites people only when touched or crowded, which is exactly what both entries describe.

Sandbar shark. The state's most numerous large coastal shark, and the animal caught the day after the 1966 Brigantine clamming incident, a 2.1-metre pregnant female weighing about 90 kilograms, in a case where the injury itself came from a speared fish. Delaware Bay and the New Jersey back bays are a primary nursery for the species, and the small sharks that occasionally nip a wader or a surfer's foot in the summer surf are most often juveniles of this species or of the sandbar's relatives.

White shark. Recorded as thought to involve a 2.6-metre white shark in the 1 July and 6 July 1916 deaths at Beach Haven and Spring Lake, and named, then withdrawn, in the 2005 Surf City surfing case. White sharks pass New Jersey every year between their southern winter grounds and the seal colonies of Cape Cod, and juveniles use the New York Bight as a nursery, but they are rarely close enough to bathers to matter. Whether the 1916 attacker was a white shark or a bull shark, particularly for the Matawan Creek cases, is a question the file leaves open.

Mako, blue shark and thresher. Offshore species that appear only in the fishing entries: a mako that leapt into a tuna boat off Brielle in 1941 and bit the cabin door, a 2.4-metre blue shark that jumped aboard a boat off Long Branch in 1936, netted blue-nose sharks that cut and bruised fishermen off Seabright in 1928, and a whiptail, queried in the file as a thresher, met by a fishing boat 20 miles off Seabright in 1926 with no injury to the crew. None has ever touched a New Jersey bather.

Epaulette shark. A small Australian reef shark that lives only in aquariums here, responsible for the 2022 Turtle Back Zoo nip. The epaulette shark is harmless in the wild and appears in the file only because the incident was logged.

For the full list of what swims off the state, see sharks in New Jersey.

What the New Jersey record says about staying safe

The file is old and mostly mild, but it points to a handful of specific habits.

• The shark most likely to hurt you is the one on your line. Fifteen entries are provoked, and most of them are anglers bitten, gashed or clubbed by a hooked, netted or boated shark, from Sea Isle City to Barnegat Light. Cut the leader on any shark you cannot handle, never bring a live shark into a small boat, and keep hands and feet away from the head and the tail.
• July and August are the months. Thirty-five of the 57 entries fall in those two months, when the water is warmest and the beaches fullest. Every fatal bathing case in the file is from July or August.
• Stay out of tidal creeks and murky back-bay channels in high summer. The 12 July 1916 deaths happened in Matawan Creek, ten miles from the sea. Warm, turbid, fish-filled water behind the barrier islands is where a large shark can be met unexpectedly.
• Surfers and bodyboarders: the cost is a fin or a foot. Four of the 8 entries since 2000 are board riders, at Surf City, Bay Head, Ship Bottom and Stone Harbor, and the worst injury among them is lacerations to a foot and calf. Avoid surfing alone at dawn and dusk, near schools of baitfish or close to anglers, and get out if sharks are feeding in the line-up.
• Divers, look before you back up. The one diving entry is a diver who reversed into a sand tiger in an aquarium tank. Sand tigers do not chase people; they bite when bumped.
• Do not put fingers in a touch tank with sharks and rays. The 2022 entry needs no more explanation than that.

If a shark does close in, our guide on how to survive a shark attack explains the essentials: keep it in sight, stay upright, back towards shallow water without thrashing, and hit the snout, eyes or gills if it makes contact.

New Jersey against the rest of the American coast

The International Shark Attack File confirms about 60 to 80 unprovoked bites a year worldwide, and the United States supplies more of them than any other country, almost all from Florida, with Hawaii, North Carolina and California behind it. New Jersey contributes an entry every few years and an unprovoked bite far less often than that. Its 57 entries put it in the middle of the state files, just ahead of the 50 of New York and well clear of its other Mid-Atlantic neighbours, but a long way behind the southern states, and its 6 deaths are entirely historical. The reason the state looms so large in the public mind is 1916, not the present: five attacks in twelve days, four of them fatal, in a summer of record heat and packed beaches, produced a national panic and, decades later, the template for Jaws. Set against the many millions of beach visits the state logs every year, the modern risk is negligible. The full picture across all the states is on the shark attacks in the USA page.

Neighbouring state records

The same water continues north into New York, whose Long Island beaches share the New York Bight's sand tigers and juvenile white sharks, and south into Delaware, which shares Delaware Bay and its sandbar shark nursery with New Jersey. North Carolina is the next state down the coast with a substantial file, and Florida is the one every other state is measured against. For the animals themselves see sharks in New Jersey; for every country and state we track, see the shark attacks hub.

Written and reviewed by

SharkSider Editorial Team

A small team focused on researching sharks and making marine biology easy to understand. Every page is reviewed against current species records and the SharkSider attack database, and updated when new incidents or research appear.

Published September 15, 2023 · Last updated September 22, 2026 · 57 records for New Jersey in the SharkSider attack database (6 fatal), updated weekly.