Killer Shark Caught and Killed

After days of panic over the shark attacks off Amity’s beaches, the trouble is over. The giant killer shark blamed for two deaths this week has been caught and killed.

Once inspected by Matt Hooper, a marine biologist known to be one of the world’s most foremost exports on sharks, the animal was identified as a nurse shark. According to Hooper, nurse sharks are among the most brutal and dangerous of all sharks and have been responsible for hundreds of swimmers’ deaths along the East Coast.

The shark was caught by fishermen one mile south of Amity. They will receive the $3,000 reward for their heroic and selfless efforts.

According to Police Chief Martin Brody, the beaches will reopen immediately, just in time for the flood of visitors fro the Fourth of July weekend. This does not mean, however, that other precautions will not be taken to avoid other shark attacks.

“Islanders and guests alike should not be alarmed by the presence of shark spotters,” said Brody in a press release. “They are simply a safety precaution that we hope will put our visitors at ease.”

Any shark sightings should be reported to authorities at the toll-free shark hotline, 1-800-sharksee.

“While law enforcement officials urge vigilance on the part of all citizens, we believe that we can safely say that the danger of further shark attacks has probably passed,” said Brody. “Amity’s dark days are behind us.”

After Meeting, Town Closes Beaches

This afternoon, a special town meeting was held, where it was decided that due to the recent alleged shark attacks, Amity's beaches will remain closed for 24 hours.

Many townspeople were not happy about this decision, claiming that 24 hours was roughly 3 weeks worth of income in the off-season. Many are worried that tourists will choose to vacation elsewhere if the beaches were closed.

In addition to closing the beaches, Chief Brody described more plans that he thought should be implemented to keep Amity safe. Brody wants to bring in extra summer deputies, shark spotters, and experts from the mainland.

The meeting was interrupted by Ben Quint, a local fisherman. He offered to catch and kill the shark that was thought to be responsible for the death of two local youths.

“I’ll catch this bird for you, but it ain’t gonna be easy,” said Quint, appearing before the town. Quint’s conditions for catching this shark would be $10,000, a much steeper price than the $3,000 offered by the Kintner family.

“We gotta do it quick, that’ll bring back your tourists, put all your businesses on a paying basis,” said Quint. “If you want to stay alive, then ante up.”

It was unclear at the end of the meeting if the town would use Quint as a resource, or stick to its original plan of closing the beaches.

Amity continues to mourn the deaths of Wendy Watson, and Alex Kintner, both thought to be the victims of shark attacks. The investigation is still ongoing. Although the town seems to have decided that both died at the jaws of a shark, government officials are still hesitant to confirm this.

NY Times Monday May 3

I just want to say that by reading the Times every day, it really makes me feel so much more informed. Today for instance, when I read the front page and I saw both headlines about Greece's debt and the merger between United Airlines and Continental, I felt so smart, because, of course, I read about both of those things a few weeks ago. It is so awesome to be able to follow a story from beginning to end, and odds are that if it was newsworthy enough the first time to make it in the paper, there will be a follow up story. That just made me feel really knowing about what is going on around the world, and it was a great feeling.

NY Times Thursday April 29

The review of Laura Bush's book published in today's New York Times actually made me want to pick up the book and read it. It's a whole new perspective of George Bush that one will probably not get anywhere other than in this book, and probably will have a lot in it about how politics can change people. I don't even want to read the article about the oil spill. It's just that depressing.

NY Times Wednesday April 28

I would like to take this opportunity to talk about the fight in the Ukraine Parliament. I'm not talking about a debate, I'm talking about a fist fight. I cannot believe that this happened. If people were jumping on tables and punching people and pulling on clothing in an American House of Representatives meeting, or in the Senate, it would be an absolute outrage. I just did not think that things like this happened any more. I mean, smoke bombs and eggs...really? No wonder our world is all messed up, when there are still people trying to settle problems of national importance through physical violence.

NY Times Tuesday April 27

First off, is the government trying to confuse us by putting that graph on the front? I sort of thought that the point of the news was to clarify and offer insight on problems that we might not understand ourselves, but this certainly does not do a lot for me. At the same time, I think it illustrates how complicated the Afghanistan war is and puts the people who blindly criticize the US for not pulling out in their place. It shows all the different factors that have to be considered during a war. I think the point of this article was to confuse us and perhaps say that we can't get out of Afghanistan now because there is so much at stake here.

NY Times Thursday April 22

I liked the article about the Estonian President being affected by the airline closures in Europe. I thought it was a cool new angle of the story, kind of like an "Even the Estonian President can't get back home!" angle. It's things like that that show us the enormity of what happened over there and how many people were affected, no matter who they are. I was intrigued about the article of the mother who made a documentary in response to the loss of her daughter to bulimia. Will responses like these, from real people who have had to deal with grief over the problem perhaps prevent it from happening more often?