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TagsBY BOB HOLT
NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM
There were an extraordinary amount of shark sightings in New Jersey during the summer of 2010, and early reports say the creatures may be returning already.
Early in June, lifeguards at Island Beach State Park were alerted to reports of a 12-foot great white shark sighting.
Wild New Jersey reported that on July12, a shark was seen swimming along Ocean Beach Unit 3, a community north of Seaside Heights, closing the beaches for less than an hour.
On July14, two five-foot sharks were spotted off Seaside Park, and later Seaside Heights, closing the beaches for most of the morning in Seaside Park, and the afternoon in Seaside Heights.
July 15 saw three shark fins being seen at Midway Beach on the Barnegat Peninsula, closing that beach for an hour.
Experts say the 2010 sightings were probably caused by the warm water off the Jersey shore. The Barnegat Light Coast Guard confirmed the sighting of the great white in June in the waters off Island Beach State Park. Berkeley Patch said the report came from a boater who said that the shark was spotted about 200 feet off the shore in the southern end.
In 2010, the Coast Guard issued a shark advisory for the Northeast for the first time, the warning came right after the crew of a tuna boat caught a 7-foot great white shark near Massachusetts.
Five seals were treated for bite wounds linked to a great white shark in 2009, Robert Schoelkopf, the director of the Marine Mammal Standing Center told the Asbury Park Press. Around that time a fisherman caught and released a 7-foot white shark off the Monmouth County shoreline that Schoelkopf believes was responsible for the bites.
Larry Ragonese of the Department of Environmental Protection said it would be very unusual to see a great white off the coast. George Burgess, curator of the International Shark Attack File in Florida, said sharks actually kill about four or five people worldwide every year.
Most New Jersey beachgoers would be satisfied to learn their shark information by watching Shark Week, which begins this year on July 31.
