Quote:
Originally posted by hampor
The whole story is much more bizarre.
This Sea Lion turned up in the central valley farmland after swimming up some irrigation canals. This is a LONG way from the ocean.
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The movie (and book) Jaws is based to a large part on a shark attack on the Matawan Creek in NewJersey - about where mile marker 106 of the Garden State Parkway crosses that creek. That is also a significant distance inland. I had kayaked that creek some 20 years ago. My kayak was about as long as creek was wide in most places. Little did I know of the 1916 history. If anyone had told me a 12 foot shark was hiding in those waters, well, water is way too shallow, too narrow, and far too inland for sharks. So I would have thought.
View pictures of where the attack occurred. Most of the creek is like this from where we put in on Route 34 at a dam almost to where small power boats are moored near Raritan Bay.
If a large Great White could spend days in a creek like this, then why not a smaller sea lion in the Central Valley?
Creek where attack happened
Creek at high tide. Land to left gently slopes down into creek; would be very shallow here:
Another view
Looking over boats on right of this picture, out beyond those reeds is the Raritan Bay. Shark attack would have been maybe a mile behind this picture:
Creek entrance to Raritan Bay
Map demonstrates how far inland this attack was:
Map of Attack
Story is here:
MATAWAN MAN-EATER