Shark Week discussion

This is the final thread for our discussion on Close to Shore: The Terrifying Shark Attacks of 1916 focusing on Part Three, "To Destroy No More." This starts with chapter "Toward the World of Men" and ends with "Like a Tale from the Stone Age." Spoilers through the end of the book are welcome here.

If you're the first person to comment, please summarize Part Three.

This is also the spot for overall comments on Shark Week 2022 or this year's group read.

Toward the World of Men
Driven away by the people trying to catch it, the shark is fighting hunger. And we learn how it digests food long after it caught its prey.

The Beloved Heart of the Town
Introducing two new characters of which at least one, I suppose, will end up as fish fodder. The other probably trying to rescue him. Two boys go swimming in the creek.

Alien World
The shark gets lost in a creek. Uh-oh.

The Creek
The shark is sighted by one guy. But no one believes him when he tries to warn people.

Under a Full Moon
The effects of moon-phases on shark bevahior.

Like a Cat Shakes a Mouse
The shark has its little snack at McCreek's.

A Splendid Type of Young Manhood
Heroic rescue attempts and more victims. I wonder if this was really a great white. Seems unlikely.

Dennis wrote: "A Splendid Type of Young Manhood
Heroic rescue attempts and more victims. I wonder if this was really a great white. Seems unlikely."

Are you saying the "young males" might have overstepped, got punished and the punisher needed an alibi?

An alibi? Lol. I don't think so.

Fleeing for Safety
The shark is on its way back to the sea, still hungry.

Dennis wrote: "An alibi? Lol. I don't think so."

The blame game. Oldest trick in the world. Throw the corpse to some animals until what you've done to it is no longer visible.

Dennis wrote: "Fleeing for Safety
The shark is on its way back to the sea, still hungry."

Beach barbies too skinny to satiate the poor little fish?

Trish wrote: "Dennis wrote: "An alibi? Lol. I don't think so."

The blame game. Oldest trick in the world. Throw the corpse to some animals until what you've done to it is no longer visible."

Ah. Well, that would have worked in that case.

Trish wrote: "Dennis wrote: "Fleeing for Safety
The shark is on its way back to the sea, still hungry."

Beach barbies too skinny to satiate the poor little fish?"

It's on its way back from the creek. Which is why I doubt that it is a great white.

To See Its Body Drawn Up on the Shore
An angry mob forms and is trying to kill the shark with rifles and dynamite. There's also a storm incoming, and an ichthyologist from New York.

Intense with Need
The author seems convinced, though, that it was the same shark in the creek and on the shore. Some stories about sharks attacking boats. As did this great white apparently.

To Drive Away the Sharks
Hysteria. People seeing sharks everywhere. Fishermen hunting and killing every shark they see. The government also gets involved.

Dennis wrote: "Ah. Well, that would have worked in that case."

It always does. That's why it's a classic. ;)

Dennis wrote: "Trish wrote: "Dennis wrote: "Fleeing for Safety
The shark is on its way back to the sea, still hungry."

Beach barbies too skinny to satiate the poor little fish?"

It's on its way back from the cr..."

Sounds more like a bull shark. Those swim up creeks mrore often than people care to admit.

Yeah, I also thought bull shark.

Something Peculiarly Sinister
Two crews go out on their boats to hunt down the shark. One encounter ends up remarkably similar to a scene from Jaws. I think Benchley had said that these events actually weren't the inspiration for Jaws. But at the very least it influenced Spielberg.

Like a Tale from the Stone Age
A great white is caught and human bones are found in its stomach. The attacks stop and the public's attention moves to the war. It remains a mystery though if that shark was indeed the killer and the author admits that it could have been several fish. Even mentioning bull sharks in connection with the killings in the creek. Ha! :)

And that's it.

Started slowly, but then became a thrilling nonfiction page-turner. Really happy with our choice this year.

Dennis wrote: "Alien World
The shark gets lost in a creek. Uh-oh."

Ha ha. Great summaries, Dennis!

I think these creek scenes were the most nerve wracking of the book. With the poor captain trying to warn everybody and the neighborhood boys cannonballing into the water with a man-eater on the loose--quite tragic and we could see where it was heading yet still very tense & suspenseful.

Dennis wrote: "A Splendid Type of Young Manhood
Heroic rescue attempts and more victims. I wonder if this was really a great white. Seems unlikely."

I took the human ankle/foot bone that was later cut out of the shark's stomach as proof that the great white had been the culprit in the creek where the boy lost his foot.

Dennis wrote: "the author admits that it could have been several fish. Even mentioning bull sharks in connection with the killings in the creek. Ha! :)"

HA squared! :D

I'm glad you enjoyed the book!

Russ wrote: "I took the human ankle/foot bone that was later cut out of the shark's stomach as proof that the great white had been the culprit in the creek where the boy lost his foot."

I still think it unlikely that even a juvenile great white swam up the creek. But great whites are often made responsible.

He explained how it could be possible. But he also said that it wasn't clear if the human bones they found in the stomach of the great white where from the victims in the creek.

I might be watching Jaws now. This whole shark week thing got delayed by spontaneous vacation. But I'm still in the mood. And have been to the beach in the meantime. :)

I understand the desire to watch Jaws and read up on the incident described in this book - modern scientists are almost all convinced that it was, in fact, a bull shark and that the bones weren't from the victims.

Dennis wrote: "To Drive Away the Sharks
Hysteria. People seeing sharks everywhere. Fishermen hunting and killing every shark they see. The government also gets involved."

Dynamiting the creek had to be one of the more irrational countermeasures employed here...

Dennis wrote: "And that's it.

Started slowly, but then became a thrilling nonfiction page-turner. Really happy with our choice this year."

I'm happy with it as well. At first I thought nonfiction was going to be a snoozer. But reading this really opened my eyes about the history of shark attacks. I feel much better informed now about human-shark interactions. And the stakes were higher in this book than in fiction because these were actual people, so it became more nail-biting.

I think the author does a good job of acknowledging that bull sharks are more likely to swim up a creek, but in this case it WAS a great white, he was able to swim in the creek thanks to the incoming tide, and then became disoriented due to lack of salinity.


Pretty ludicrous that some people at first thought it was an ORCA. An orca in a little creek???

Nadine in NY wrote: "I think the author does a good job of acknowledging that bull sharks are more likely to swim up a creek, but in this case it WAS a great white, he was able to swim in the creek thanks to the incomi..."

Uhm … there is no evidence that it was indeed a Great White, actually. The scientists are still very much divided about what happened in 1916. But yeah, an Orca. *chuckles*

Nadine in NY wrote: "I think the author does a good job of acknowledging that bull sharks are more likely to swim up a creek, but in this case it WAS a great white, he was able to swim in the creek thanks to the incomi..."

I hear you, Nadine. I was persuaded by the forensic evidence, the eye-witness descriptions of the shark's appearance, Capuzzo's chapter explaining the effect of the full moon on saltwater infiltration up the creek, and the fact that the attacks stopped after the great white was killed. I'm willing to be proven wrong, but Capuzzo did his homework.

Trish wrote: "Nadine in NY wrote: "I think the author does a good job of acknowledging that bull sharks are more likely to swim up a creek, but in this case it WAS a great white, he was able to swim in the creek..."


I realize we don’t know exactly what happened, we don’t know if it was all one shark or what type of shark/s, and we never will know. I realize it’s extremely unlikely that a great white would swim up the creek. (I’m on Manahawkin Bay right now, and it’s crazy to think there could be a great white swimming in there, even though I KNOW that sharks and dolphins have been seen swimming there.). But my point is: I think the author did a really good job laying out an argument that it was a single great white. You sound like you remain Team Bull Shark, however. Where do you think the author could have been more convincing?

I'm not sure it's about him being more convincing. It just sounds as if he had been ignoring so much evidence from the past 10 or 20 years and instead gone with too much "old" stuff. If that makes sense.

As for being at Manahawkin Bay, I always tried to imagine what it must be like to live, say, in Florida where aligators are a common sight.

I'm already a few chapters into Part 3. The retired sea Captain just tried to warn the town but got laughed at. The scene where he stands on the bridge and witnesses the shark swim directly below him was the most memorable scene in Twelve Days of Terror: A Definitive Investigation of the 1916 New Jersey Shark Attacks by Richard G. Fernicola which is otherwise inferior to this book in just about every way.

I happened to catch Jaws this weekend on AMC. It had been a long time since I'd seen that movie. There were so many parts of the film that reminded me of this book/the true events - like the stubborn refusal to admit that the culprit was a shark (although in Jaws this was financially based rather than scientific stubbornness). The end had me laughing though, with the shark jumping up on the back of the boat and all the other nonsense (not as bad as the sequel, when the shark attacks the helicopter). We know sharks much better now, and Jaws unfortunately looks quaint in comparison. Still a lot of fun though.

RJ - Slayer of Trolls wrote: "I'm already a few chapters into Part 3. The retired sea Captain just tried to warn the town but got laughed at. The scene where he stands on the bridge and witnesses the shark swim directly below h..."

I wish I could've watched Jaws this summer but the timing just didn't work. I know we've moved away from shark attacks to shark conservation, but that's still such a classic.

I watched it after I had finished the book. I was surprised how bad the acting was, apart from Brody, Quint and Hooper. But it was still fun.

It looks like there is some debate in the group about who perpetrated the 1916 shark attacks, so I posted a poll to see what everyone thinks. Votes are anonymous, and write-ins are allowed. Go vote!

https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/2...

OK I finished. I have to say the last two-hundred pages were fun. The first hundred, not so much....

There were definitely some JAWS vibes along the way, although Peter Benchley later came out and said that he regretted writing Jaws because he thought it was unfair to sharks. I suppose that's like saying Silence of the Lambs is unfair to serial killers, right? Kind of beside the point. Jaws was a fun film and novel, based on some historical events. The panic people felt watching Jaws in the theater is probably not too different from the panic that people felt in 1916 reading the accounts of the attacks in the newspapers.