High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The summer of 2001 was dubbed the Summer of the Shark by American newsmedia outlets capitalizing on a June 2001 bull shark attack that severed the arm of 8-year-old Jessie Arbogast (later surgically reattached) and subsequent shark attacks worldwide. Abrogast's spectacular rescue and survival received extensive coverage in the 24-hour news cycle which was renewed (and then redoubled) with each subsequent report of a shark incident. The so-called "epidemic" of shark attacks became the top news story of the summer going into September, and had a cover story on the July 30th issue of Time magazine.