Matawan Creek

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources.
Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. (help, get involved!)
Any material not supported by sources may be challenged and removed at any time. This article has been tagged since February 2007.

Matawan Creek is a creek and partially a tidal estuary of the Atlantic Ocean. It lies in the northeastern sector of New Jersey across from Staten Island, New York. The creek was made infamous due to horrific shark attacks on July 12, 1916, occurring 15 miles (25 km) upstream, which killed 12 year old Lester Stillwell and his 24 year old would-be rescuer Watson "Stanley" Fisher and severely injured 12 year old Joseph Dunn later that same day.

This account, in addition to a number of other shark attacks in the local area, are believed to have been the inspiration for the popular novel Jaws, written by Peter Benchley, who in turn co-wrote the screenplay for the blockbuster movie of the same name directed by Steven Spielberg. Benchley was a New Jersey native, and had done research on the Jersey Shore Shark Attacks of 1916 previously.