FRANK MUNDUS

Frank Mundus
“Inventor” of Shark Fishing, Inspiration for Jaws

You can hear the music in the background anytime you step in the water at night. Oh, sure, when you were a teenager you used to swim at night, but then that damn movie came along and that was the end of that.

We’ve all seen Jaws a hundred times. In the summer it seems as if some of the cable channels are the Jaws channels. But there isn’t a one of us who doesn’t remember Robert Shaw playing Quint, the hard-ass, sea-faring shark hunter, who sings a ditty as he sails from shore in search of the monster.

Well, the real life monster hunter, Frank Mundus — the man who single-handedly invented Jaws and who made shark hunting what it was when the sharks were really big — passed away on September 10 in his adopted home of Hawaii. In an interview in April, 2008, Mundus had this to say about controversy of who Quint really was. The Cricket II, the boat Mundus fished with, was on display at the Atlantis Marine World Aquarium, in Riverhead, NY, and it played a big part, according to Mundus.

“That’s the boat’s responsible for the movie,” said Mundus. “If there was no Crickett II — and if we didn’t start fishing — there would be no Jaws. Some of the scenes actually happened on the Cricket II , they just changed them around... made them stupid. I kept saying to customers 30 years ago, ‘hey we should tag these sharks and learn something,’ and then Jaws comes out and everybody’s a shark fisherman.”

Spielberg, who produced and directed Jaws , and Peter Benchley who wrote the book, would never say that Mundus inspired the Quint character. But Mundus said they knew.

“I met Roy Schneider [who played Chief Brody in the movie] and Spielberg at a little shindig on Long Island,” said Mundus. “I’d met Schneider before and I said we had a lot to talk about it. He agreed. Spielberg came in — he was escorted by about five police … you couldn’t even look at him. He knew I was there, he knew I lived there… he was shuffled right in and then right out. That’s as close as I came to Spielberg. It was a kinda’ Jaws screening fund raiser. They had Q&As. Each one of them stood up and answered questions for about five minutes. They coulda’ said, hey Mundus, c’mon up …”

Mundus said he wasn’t mad at the slight, though he was mad at Universal’s refusal to allow him to use clips from the movie in a documentary made about him. “Someday this documentary will get made,” said Mundus.

Mundus was born in Long Branch, New Jersey in 1925 and started shark fishing off Montauk in 1951. “I called it ‘Monster Fishing’ to attract customers,” he said. His largest shark was a 4,500 pound great white taken by harpoon — unlike in Jaws, Mundus used hand-thrown harpoons after experimenting with gun fired ones. “They’d pull out after you hit the fish with them,” he said. His largest great white caught by rod-and-reel was 3,427 pounds.

Mundus retired to Hawaii in 1990. “I live on South Point on Oahu. Twelve miles from the water, thank God. What do I waana see the water for? There ain’t nothing there anymore. It’s just one big puddle.”

He was back on Long Island this past summer (2008)—in Montauk and Riverhead — for a round of charter fishing. “To be perfectly honest,” he said. “It’s to make a buck.”

Frank returned to Hawaii in mid-September after falling ill, and reportedly failed to survive heart surgery. He was 83.

Mundus’ most famous advertisement for his fishing services was one that read, “We can teach beginners … because we taught all the experts.” — Capt. Gary P. Joyce

Farewell and adieu to you, fair Spanish ladies.
Farewell and adieu, you ladies of Spain.
For we've received orders for to sail back to Boston.
And so nevermore shall we see you again.