b'F ifty years ago, Steven Spielbergs Jaws scared the world into fear- reational bathers are bitten in a given year. Your odds of winning the lottery or ing sharks as merciless predators seeking young, human flesh.being struck by lightning are considerably higher.The result was decades of recreational slaughter. Not unlike theThrough the late 1970s and early 80s, fueled by the cinematic success of Jaws, droves of amateur shark hunters who spilled into the ocean offshark fishing, particularly from the surf, exploded in popularity, and nowhere Amity Beach seeking the killer Great White that was eating mid- more than on the Texas Gulf Coast, and especially along the Padre Island National night skinny dippersmotivated by a generous reward offeredSeashore (PINS). A barrier island is one that runs along a coastline, with an in-by the fictitious mayorand armed with everything from fishingshore bay situated between the island and the mainland. Padre Island is the longest rods and harpoons to machetes and shotguns, thousands of adrenaline-fueled an- such barrier island in the world, stretching from Packery Channel to the north, glers across America set out to eliminate as many of the bloodthirsty beasts as they113 miles south to the spot across from where SpaceX launches its rockets, with the could, while having one helluva good time in the process! channel at Port Mansfield bifurcating the island, 75 miles south.In 1975, it had been nearly a half-century since the first and most famous reportsPINS was established in 1962 by an act of Congress signed into law by President of a rouge shark [or sharks] attacking humans en masse along a U.S. shoreline,Kennedy. The national seashore was officially opened and dedicated in a ceremo-when during the first two weeks of July 1916, five bathers were bitten off the beach- ny led by Lady Bird Johnson on April 8, 1968. The preservation of 70 miles of es of the New Jersey shore, four killed and one who barely survived. One of theundeveloped Gulf coastline relegated us humans as temporary visitors to a natural attacks took place in brackish water, 150 feet up a freshwater creek, leading re- world left untouched since the islands formation, about 3,000 years ago. PINS searchers to believe that the culprit was a Bull Shark, rather than a Great White.occupies a piece of geography that attracts a diverse and plethoric array of wildlife Since such statistics have been collected, there have been an average of less thanactivity, compared to just about any place in the worldalmost 400 bird species 100 unprovoked (as in, not while catching a shark) attacks per year, worldwide,have been identified at the park, as recorded by the National Audubon Society, with an average of less than 20 deaths per year. Most shark attacks are on surfersand its exposure to the strongest and most extreme ocean currents in the Gulf of and spearfishermen, meaning that less than 50 out of hundreds of millions of rec- Mexico create the deepest near-shore guts between underwater sand barssome 98THECOASTALBENDMAGAZINE TheCoastalBend.com'