What To Do If You Encounter A Shark At The Jersey Shore

There has been a decent amount of shark talk this Summer here at the Jersey Shore.

Now don't worry too much. Sharks don't want anything to do with us and when there have been encounters, it is usually because they mistaken us for food. (Yum?)

But a lot of people have asked what they are supposed to do if they think they do ever encountered a shark.

Well 67-year-old Paul Sykes was forced to find the answer when he felt a "powerful blow" which knocked him off his paddleboard and pushed him underwater on May 20th here at the Jersey Shore.

He claims to have seen a foot-long fin sticking out of the water which is why he believes the incident was caused by a shark.

And now everyone will have the answer on how to handle this type of situation: You are supposed to report the incident to the Global Shark Attack File which is maintained by the Princeton-based Shark Research Institute.

Keep in mind that a shark incident does not necessarily mean that it is as action-filled as scenes that you see in movies.

According to the Institute's Executive Director, Marie Levine, even being brushed by a Shark counts as encounter and experts are looking for our intel to keep track of where there is the most shark activity.

There is actually a file that keeps all incidents reported, some dating back to the 1800's!

There are a lot of details that breaks this type of thing down in different categories so for more information, head to APP.com where they tell you about the most recent shark encounter at the Jersey Shore and other details that will be helpful for your safety.

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