A Jersey Shore mayor wants to control what legal fishermen can do in the ocean because he's afraid of sharks — and he's openly frustrated that nothing gives him the authority to do it.
Bay Head Mayor Bill Curtis told the New York Post that anglers chumming for sharks near swimming beaches is "a disaster headed straight for us." His complaint: fishermen are using kayaks and drones to drop bait, sometimes it drifts toward shore, and — here's the key — it's all perfectly legal. "My hands are tied. The laws can't help us," Curtis said. The town passed a resolution "encouraging" compliance with state and federal regulations. That's all they can do. For now.
This is the authoritarian instinct in its purest form. A politician sees something he doesn't like, discovers he has no legal authority to stop it, and instead of accepting that free citizens are acting within their rights, he runs to the press to manufacture a crisis. The Post was happy to help, headlining the story as a "real-life 'Jaws' nightmare" and calling bull sharks "cold-blooded killing machines."
Here's what actually happened this summer: surf fishermen legally landed at least four bull sharks and a tiger shark. There have been shark sightings. There have been zero attacks. Zero.
The Post leaned hard into fear, invoking the 1916 Jersey Shore shark attacks that killed four people and inspired "Jaws." Curtis played along: "We can only pray the season ends without anyone getting killed." That's a mayor with no data point beyond a horror movie and a century-old tragedy asking you to trust his gut over your liberty.
What's driving the sharks close to shore isn't chum — it's nature. New Jersey Fish and Wildlife biologist Greg Hinks told the Asbury Park Press that bull shark reports are coming in "almost every day" and called it "unprecedented." The reason: huge schools of squid and sand eels, plus warming ocean temperatures keeping sharks around longer. The sharks were already coming. The bait in the water is a fraction of what the ocean itself is serving up.
Even a charter company owner who fishes for sharks says the mayor's target is the wrong one. Kenny Rosenblatt, who runs East Coast Shredderz, told the Post: "Most, like us, catch and release responsibly, but there are fishermen who don't do things right." That's an argument for going after bad actors — not for granting a local politician blanket power over legal activity he finds distasteful.
Curtis has made his position clear: he wants control, the facts be damned. The only thing stopping him is the law. The question is how long that stays true once a mayor with a resolution and a press campaign decides that's not enough.
