The "Jaws of New Jersey" Story

It was an ordinary day. Carol and I and the three kids are at the beach for a week. Staying at Sea Isle City, NJ this year in a second floor apartment right on the beach. Neat place. Rented it from the mother of one of the teachers that I work with at MTHS. Derek is 10 years old, Brynn is 7 years old and Tad is 5 years old. Great fun for the family to spend time together. Directly in front of us is the Atlantic Ocean. The beach is about 40 yards wide at this point and the house sits behind a 10 to 12 foot high sand dune. Our view is unobstructed and it is an easy walk over the dune to the beach. At one point on the beach the water has erroded the sand enough that it has created a small pool of water that, during low tide still remains and is a great place for the kids to play. Water in the pool is about a foot deep and the pool reaches about 30 feet long and 10 feet across. During high tide all sorts of creatures and small fish find their way into the pool, and as the tide recedes, they stay trapped in the pool until the following high tide. Great for the kids to learn about the things that live in the sea. Almost our own private salt water aquarium. High tide has been running about 4:00 AM so by 8:00 AM the water in the pool has been shut off from the ocean's flow and by the time we head to the beach at 9:30 AM we can enjoy the creatures that have been trapped. Yesterday a horseshoe crab was the catch of the day for the tidewater pool. The kids enjoyed watching it try to bury itself in the wet sand and got to feel the shell of the crab. There are always plenty of sand hard shell crabs and small fish that we find in the water. But ...... today we have new found excitement. We are some of the first on the beach and while Carol and I set up the chairs and umbrella, the kids run to the pool to see what they can find. Just as fast as they went over to the pool of water, they return. Extremely excited!! "Dad, there's a shark in the water over there," Derek yells to me. "How do you know that?" I ask him. "Because it has a big fin that sticks up out of the water. And, he's about this long," he says as he opens his arms as wide as he can. Now he has my attention! We hurry, no run, over to the two foot deep water and sure enough there is a two foot shark gliding along on the bottom of the water, his top fin sticking out of the water. Now others have gathered around the pool and are looking at the shark. Close by is the life guard stand and they have just set up for the day. I tell Derek to go get a lifeguard while I make sure no one jumps in the water with the shark. Soon the lifeguard comes and stands with us and examines our find. That's either a small nurse shark or a brown shark. The only way you can tell the difference is the size of the dorsal fin, and he wasn't sure which it was. Both feed on small fish, mollusks, rays and crustaceans. That's why they are swimming along the bottom of the water, looking for food. Naturally I ask, "Will they bite the kids?" "I don't think so, but I'll get someone to come and take it back out into the water so we don't have any trouble." About a half hour later a jeep rolls to a stop by the pool and two guys with heavy gloves walk into the water and pick up the shark and carry it out to the ocean. Looks like a parade behind them as the kids and a few adults (including me) follow to see it swim off into the safety of the sea. I'll tell you, it took a while for the kids, and me, to decide to get into the water that day. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.