I recall when the enviros used to say there was no recorded attack of a human by a shark in the 80s. May have been a reaction to the release of Jaws in ‘75. And then we started getting shark attack reports frequently after that.
You must have been thinking of WOLF IN NORTH AMERICA. Way back when the U.S.S. Indianapolis sank and almost 600 survivors were attacked and eaten by sharks ~ see: http://www.ussindianapolis.org/story.htm