Shark Week Stirs Memories But Connecticut Attacks Are Nearly Nonexistent

If you've been watching Shark Week on Discovery you may be nervous the next time you take a dip in Long Island Sound, but did you know that the last recorded shark attack in Connecticut happened before most of us were born?

Jaws is everywhere still in 2025, it's the films 50th anniversary, and the Discovery Channel has gone wall-to-wall all week with specials and documentaries. Are you worried that your may be just like poor Alex Kitner the next time you dip your yellow float into the water off Rocky Neck or Sherwood Island? You really shouldn't be.

When Was The Last Time Someone Was Attacked By a Shark in Connecticut?

The last recorded shark attack happened in 1960 near the Eames Monument in Bridgeport. 38 year old Clyde Trudeau was free diving and suffered a superficial laceration on his left arm during the attack, according to sharksider.com.

27 years before the incident in Bridgeport, Helen Clarke was bitten by a shark on her foot while swimming in the Mystic River in August of 1933, and the first and only other shark attack in recorded history in Connecticut occurred in August of 1890 when Raymond O'Dell suffered severe lacerations to his left arm after being bitten by a shark while clamming in Bridgeport.

We had Jen the Zookeeper on our show this morning and I asked what are the most common species of sharks in Long Island Sound along the Connecticut shoreline? The Answer? Two types of Dogfish, Sand Tiger Shark, and Brown Shark. No Great White Sharks have ever been recorded off of the Connecticut coastline, so Connecticut may be just as boring to true maneaters as it is to the majority of us residents.