Shark Fisherman Who Inspired Jaws Dies

by Peter Jolly

Frank Mundus was a legendary shark hunter based in Montauk, Long Island and was the inspiration for Peter Benchley’s Captain Quint from Jaws.

Mundus died this week aged 82 at Honolulu’s Queen’s Medical Center from complications following a heart attack. Mundus was born in New Jersey in 1925 and began shark fishing off the coast of Montauk in the 1950s, he holds the record for catching the biggest great white sharks using rod and reel.

Jaws author Peter Benchley was in Montauk in 1968 and was fascinated with Mundus. The writer would watch Mundus head out to sea in a relatively tiny boat and hunt for killer great whites that were practically the same size as his vessel. Just like Benchley’s character Quint, Mundus would harpoon the huge beasts and run with them till they tired before pulling them alongside his boat and shooting them with a rifle.

Benchley tried denying the connection with Mundus, but the similarities are obvious. A close friend of Mundus who knew him for over 30 years had this to say.

“The movie was based 100 percent on him. Everything that they talked about in that move came directly from him.”

Mundus himself didn’t seem to be a huge fan of the film,

“It was the funniest and the stupidest movie I’ve ever seen . . . no shark can pull a boat backwards at a fast speed with a light line and stern cleats that are only held in there by two bolts,” he said. “And I’ve never boiled shark jaws. If you do, you’ll only end up with a bunch of teeth at the bottom of your bucket because the jaw cartilage melts.”

But that’s the kind of response one would expect from such a mean character. The fishing legend even described himself as “aggravating”.

Frank Mundus retired to Hawaii in 1991 with his wife Jeanette who was 38 years his junior, but he returned to Montauk every summer to fish. Mundus grew concerned by the over fishing of the seas with commercial fishing boats, and began work to preserve shark populations. He fully endorsed a shark fishing system where the animals are tagged and then released.

The fishing community of Montauk had this to say about Frank,

“If they don’t build a monument for him in Montauk, it would be a shame. He put it on the map.”

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Shark Fisherman Who Inspired Jaws Dies

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