The New Jersey Shark Attack file was established in 1998 to investigate all possible incidents of shark attack within the waters of New Jersey. Due to the close proximity and similar habitat with Long Island the file was expanded in 2017 to include all attacks in New York waters. The current area of study is the New York Bight that runs from Cape May, New Jersey to Montauk, New York. Rivers, bays, and estuaries from the areas are included in the reporting area. Also included are freshwater bodies of water and aquariums. The purpose of the file is to place all available data on shark attacks in one useful form to demonstrate how rare these events are. The ultimate goal of the file is to encourage shark conservation as humans pose a much greater danger to sharks than they do to us. A second goal of NJSAF is to investigate and expose those that sell and profit from the illegal shark fin trade.
Based on the evidence there are several possibilities for finding the suspect responsible for the 1916 attacks. The four most likely possibilities are:
A single juvenile Great White Shark was involved in all incidents.
A single adult Bull Shark was involved in all incidents.
A single Tiger Shark was involved in all incidents.
A school of Brown Sharks was working the coast and a number of aggressive Bull Sharks traveling with them were responsible for the attack.
