1916 Jersey Shore Shark Tooth

(Credit to Tajjas of Fanfiction.net)

Origins
In 1916 there were a string of brutal shark attacks along the coast of New Jersey, culminating in four deaths. The summer of 1916 happened to be a record scorcher at the time, leading to many holiday makers flocking to the beaches to beat the intense summer heat. Experts have theorised that it was a combination of high human activity and an unusually high shark presence contributed to the impact of the attacks.

Following the incident there was a nationwide outcry leading to several efforts to cull the man-eaters. Beachers were closed and sharks were heavily overfished. This was mainly due to actual scientific knowledge of sharks being mostly conjecture and assumptions. Never the less, the incident was ingrained in the public psyche and was said to have been at least partially responsible for the writing of the Jaws series.

At some time one of the man eaters made its way to the Raritan Bay and suffered some damage to it's jaw, leaving a broken shard of tooth in the sandbed. Almost 100 years later, a sample of sedbed was collected and moved to the Boston Aquarium as part of the new Coastal Waters display, inadvertantly taking the tooth shard with it. In a location where it could comeinto contact with almost anyone, several people suffered unexplained wounds that escalated in severity, including Agent Cludia Donovan.The shard of tooth was identified and recovered.

Effects
When the shard of tooth makes skin contact with a person, they experience a painful and jagged wound on the upper arm, as if bitten by a large shark. It seems to be a delayed response, as it doesn't happen until about a minute after contact. Victims report feeling a tugging sensation, followed by extreme pain. The serverity of the bite seems to get more severe with each consecutive occurance, the fifth nearly ripping the arm clean off.