The Southern Blueprint Podcast
Shark Week- Summer of Sharks: The North Carolina Attacks of 2015
In the summer of 2015, North Carolina experienced one of the most unusual shark-bite clusters in its recorded history. Over just twenty-four days, eight people were bitten along the coast, from Ocean Isle Beach and Oak Island to Surf City and the Outer Banks. Two teenagers lost arms during attacks that occurred less than ninety minutes apart, while several other swimmers suffered serious injuries in the days that followed. Support The Southern Blueprint by joining the Hidden Pine Lodge on Patreon. HERE Members receive additional content and full access to our private Discord community, where we continue the conversation about Southern history, mysteries, folklore, travel, books, bourbon, wildlife and the stories featured on the podcast. You can join through the Patreon link in the episode notes. In this Shark Week episode, we reconstruct each of the eight incidents, examine the environmental conditions that may have contributed to the cluster and explore why shark attacks create such intense public fear. We also look at the influence of Jaws, the actual odds of being bitten, the sharks found along Southern coastlines and North Carolina’s surprising prehistoric connection to the megalodon. This is the story of the summer North Carolina became the center of a national shark panic—and what those attacks reveal about fear, survival and the wild Atlantic just beyond the beach.
