A year removed from the most shark-filled New Jersey summer in decades, shark sightings and encounters have been few and far between along the Jersey Shore during the summer of 2011.  For our shark lovers out there, we must depend on Discovery Channel's annual Shark Week series - and the State Aquarium's accompanying Shark Week Promotion - to enjoy these magnificent predators in the Garden State.

Last year, we had sharks swimming right onto the beach in Seaside Park, and multiple shark sightings from Ocean Beach Unit 3 to Lakes Bay, including rarely encountered species like the hammerhead shark.  So far in 2011, we have been limited to a U.S. Coast Guard-confirmed early June shark sighting off of Island Beach State Park.  That sighting was, however, of a 12-foot great white shark.

While approximately two dozen species of sharks swim along our coast, they typically stay far out of sight for beach goers.  Camden's Adventure Aquarium offers another option for individuals and families seeking to enjoy a shark from the safety of a Shark Tunnel.  Running from July 30 through August 7, the aquarium offers a 550,000-gallon Shark Realm Exhibit, where visitors can walk through the suspended, 40-foot Shark Tunnel and enjoy sand tiger sharks, sand bar sharks, nurse sharks, silky sharks, black-nosed sharks, and black sharks.  A touch tank also offers the chance for even closer encounters with these apex oceanic predators.

As we learn more about these creatures - rather than simply relying on the Hollywood myths of Jaws and other films - sharks might have a fighting chance to escape the barbaric practices still going on in much of the world, such as slicing off a shark's dorsal fin and throwing the animal back into the ocean to die.  Millions of sharks die each year, not only threatening many species' existence but potentially altering the entire ecoystem in the process.

David Wheeler is the author of Wild New Jersey: Nature Adventures in the Garden State.

For more details on Adventure Aquarium's Shark Week Promotion, click here: http://www.adventureaquarium.com/guestinfo/upcomingevents.aspx

To learn about Discovery Channel's Shark Week, click here:
http://dsc.discovery.com/tv/shark-week/

For last year's Summer of the Shark special, click here:
http://wildnewjersey.tv/2010/08/02/wild-new-jersey-exclusive-summer-of-the-shark-continues-with-seaside-park-beach-closing.aspx?ref=rss

For stories about the endangerment of sharks worldwide, read the following stories:
http://wildnewjersey.tv/2011/05/05/new-york-times-whats-a-live-shark-worth-oh-about-2-million.aspx

http://wildnewjersey.tv/2010/12/09/wnj-interview-barbaric-shark-finning-continues-to-bloody-our-seas.aspx

http://wildnewjersey.tv/2010/08/18/audubonmagazineorg-mad-mens-january-jones-sticks-up-for-sharks.aspx

For recent stories on 2011 N.J. sharks, click on the following links:

New Jersey Newsroom: Has Jersey Shore become a shark hotbed?
http://www.newjerseynewsroom.com/science-updates/has-the-new-jersey-coast-become-a-shark-hotbed

http://wildnewjersey.tv/2011/06/06/nbc-philadelphia-great-white-shark-spotted-off-nj-coast.aspx

http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/news/press/new_jersey/experts-say-great-white-sharks-rare-off-new-jersey-coast/article_64630c28-a6a3-11e0-bfd1-001cc4c03286.html

New Jersey Shark:
http://wildnewjersey.tv/2011/06/08/the-ravens-nest.aspx

http://wildnewjersey.tv/2010/08/23/nj-wild-photo-spread-of-sand-shark-visiting-seaside.aspx