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and often graphic nature. Listener discretion is strongly advised.

Please don't let your kids listen to this or they might turn out like us.

Hi, I'm Annie and I'm Johanna and you're listening to Fresh Hell. Thanks for joining us. And today I'm going to tell you the story of the Jersey man-eater.

The Jersey maneater. What exactly is that? It's not, I know, it's not a cannibal, it's a shark.

So this is the story of the infamous 1916 shark attacks that took place in New Jersey on the northeast

coast of the United States. It's awful. You ready? I never heard about that.

It's mentioned very briefly in the film Jaws.

There is a scene where they reference the shark attacks of 1916

in the beginning of the movie when they're trying to

convince him to close the beaches and this is the story they're talking about.

There was a lot of speculation and you'll still see stuff that says the story that inspired Jaws.

And it turns out that's not actually true.

I actually had thought that until I did all the research for this podcast.

And that's not true although when he was

writing Jaws obviously he came across this story and wrote it in so this all takes

place as I said, in 1916.

So a little bit of history and a few quick basic facts.

Shark attacks happen on almost every coast around the world,

but they're really very rare. So you're more likely to be struck by

lightning or killed by a dog than you are to be killed by a shark.

Seriously?

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