29°
Frank Mundus, a Montauk fisherman, inspired the character of Quint in Peter Benchley’s 1974 novel "Jaws," which was made into a summer movie blockbuster by Steven Speilberg.
Benchley developed the idea from reading a news report of a Long Island fisherman catching a 4,550-pound great white shark off the coast of Long Island in 1964.
Frank Mundus was a sports fisherman in Montauk who chartered out his boat Cricket II for big game fishing thrill-seekers.
Mundus was born in Long Branch, New Jersey, and moved to Brooklyn when he was young. In 1945, he began a charter fishing operation in Brielle, New Jersey, with the Cricket. In 1947, he had the Cricket II custom-built.
He moved to Montauk in 1951 to run charters for bluefish.
Mundus saw that bluefish were not plentiful but sharks were waters in Montauk.
Mundus started "Monster Fishing" with boats leaving the port at Lake Montauk. He caught the 4,500 pound great white shark by harpoon (the weight was estimated without the shark having been weighed).
In 1986 he and Donnie Braddick caught a 3,427-pound great white about 28 miles off Montauk, both the largest shark and largest fish ever caught by rod and reel.
Though Mundus was a shark hunter he later became a shark conservationist.
In his final year, he campaigned for shark fishermen to catch and release their prey.
In 2008 the Cricket spent most of the summer at Atlantis Marine World in Riverhead to support conservation of sharks.
Mundus died on Sept. 10, 2008, in Honolulu due to complications from a heart attack he suffered on September 6, 2008, the day he arrived in Hawaii after spending the summer in Montauk.
The actor Robert Shaw played Quint in "Jaws."
Shark Week on the Discovery Channel continues through Sunday, Aug. 4. Check the schedule here.
Click here to follow Daily Voice Massapequa and receive free news updates.
