Rumson Police: Bull Shark Sightings in River

The summer of 2020 in the Rumson-Fair Haven area has seen a pandemic, the lightning speed wrath of a tropical storm, a vast power outage and now, with the sun’s reappearance, shark sightings in the Navesink River.

After the rain, as people took to the distanced solace offered by river-borne activity, several reported sightings of bull sharks in the water, Rumson police said in a Facebook post.

The river has had its share of water critter invasions, like the clinging jellyfish not all that long ago, and the natural, yet alarming, annual appearance of dead fish along the shoreline. It’s not the great white of Jaws infamy and the river is not the 1916 Matawan Creek incident where the Jaws story was born, but the bull shark sighting is a first, at least in recent times.

Though, police said, “no sightings have been confirmed as of yet, but, as always, there is a possibility that sharks could be in our local waterways.”

Police said that the reports indicated that the sharks have been spotted in the Navesink River in the area of Navesink Avenue in Rumson. The NJ Division of Fish and Wildlife has been notified, they added.

Bull sharks are known to frequent shallow, warmer waters of coastal saltwater ocean spots and have a strong ability to migrate into fresh water rivers. They have been known to be the most aggressive. Though, shark attacks are not usual.

Police reiterate that none of the sightings has as of yet been confirmed.

R-FH Retro will update this when more information becomes available.