Killer Shark Captured

The shark that reportedly killed Amity residents Alex Kintner and Christine Watson this week has been captured and killed by fishermen a mile southwest of the island.

According to Police Chief Martin Brody, the shark was inspected by Matt Hooper, a marine biologist from the Woods Hole, Mass., Oceanographic Institute, who declared the shark to be a nurse shark.

"Nurse sharks are among the most brutal and dangerous of all sharks and have been responsible for hundreds of swimmers' deaths along the East Coast of the United States," wrote Brody in a recent press release.

The 11-foot, 875-pound shark was killed by Mike Swenson from Medford, Mass., who will receive the $3,000 reward from Marion Kintner, Alex's mother.

The capture and death of the shark resulted in Brody's decision to reopen the beaches in time for this weekend's Fourth of July celebrations.

After the reopening of the beaches, one incident occurred where two 12-year-old Amity residents - Wayne Winston and Brad Kaplin - swam in the water with a fake shark's fin, resulting in panic and officials clearing residents and tourists alike out of the water.

"He made me do it," said Wayne as he pointed at Brad.

According to Police Chief Brody, "Both have been remanded to the custody of their parents."

While this was only a false alarm and there were no injuries, shark spotters will remain on patrol as a safety precaution and a hotline, 1-800-sharksee, will be open for any shark sightings.

Town Meeting Leads to Bounty

Local fisherman Ben Quint has offered to capture and kill the shark that attacked local beach-goers Alex Kintner and Christine Watson this week.

The offer came in after Marion Kintner, Alex's mother, offered a $3000 reward "to the man or men who catch and kill the shark" that killed Alex. Kintner has spread the bounty to towns around Amity in addition to local seamen.

Not all of Amity is taking the bounty seriously, though.

"Does that reward come in cash or check?" joked one chairman.

 Quint then scratched his fingernails on the chalkboard behind him and offered to catch the shark for $10,000 on the condition he doesn't get any volunteers.

"There's too many captains in this island."

Mayor Larry Vaughn said, "We did talk about it later and we are willing to - we have talked to Mrs. Kintner - and we will come up with $7000 and she will come up with the remaining $3000" for the capture of the shark.

Quint's offer stand as many try to hunt for the shark.

"You get the head, the tail, the whole damn thing," Quint said.

The beaches will be closed for the next 24 hours and Police Chief Martin Brody said that there will be shark spotters and experts coming in from the mainland to aid in the search.

Lack of history, but still possible

While the recent shark attacks in Amity, Mass. have worried many here in coastal New Hampshire, history and science show that attacks are not likely to occur.

But it is still possible.

Larry Harris, a professor of zoology at the University of New Hampshire in Durham, said that attacks are a possibility, and some larger sharks have been spotted in the waters of our southern neighbors.

"It is always possible that a shark attack could occur and Great White sharks have been seen off Massachusetts beaches as recent as last summer," Harris wrote in an email.

"Several species of large sharks are found in our waters in the summer and summers are getting warmer so they will become more common," Harris wrote. "Blue sharks, Porbeagles, Makos are seen along with Great Whites.  Basking Sharks occur, but they feed on plankton and Dogfish, but they are too small and rather harmless."

However, the history of the area says that a shark attack is unlikely. According to the Florida Museum of Natural History, there were zero shark attacks or fatalities from 1959 to 1994.

The museum compared the history of people being struck by lightning in the state to being attacked by a shark on the same page. Eight people were killed by lightening in the same time period as the non-existent shark attacks and fatalities.

Compare New Hampshire's numbers to Florida's - 226 shark attacks and five shark fatalities - and the odds are looking better.

In the 2010 book Sharks of New England, authors Alessandro de Maddalena and Walter Heim - curator of the Italian Great White Shark Data Bank and a volunteer shark-tagger, respectively - try to educate people about New England sharks.

"Only twelve confirmed unprovoked shark attacks have been recorded in New England waters, and only three of them were fatal," the book states. "To date, no unprovoked shark attacks have been reported or authenticated from either New Hampshire or Maine."

Thursday 12/1

In the secret daughter article, I like the simple lede. The writer put those two famous names in and left out enough information to make it interesting. I wish there was some form of a quote before having to turn to another section of the paper. In the time to run article - in the style section - I didn't like how an entire paragraph was in parentheses. I like the quote the writer saved for the last paragraph, it was funny and a light-hearted ending.