SHARK FILES
Robert J. Heyer | INVESTIGATION | CONSERVATION
ABOUT US
Robert J Heyer
Biologist, Educator, Investigative Journalist
Robert J. Heyer is a Biologist and Investigative Environmental Journalist from New Jersey. He has a degree from Monmouth University and has received certificates in wildlife management and wildlife tourism in Pretoria South Africa and diplomas in marine biology & oceanography in Australia. He has worked as a biological technician in Sandy Hook, NJ and as a fisheries observer before teaching marine science in high school. While teaching he went to grad school for investigative environmental journalism and has been working in the field ever since. Most recently he has been working with the illegal shark fin trade in NYCs Manhattan and Queens Chinatowns.
Robert is a member of the Society of Environmental Journalists, Association for Professional Observers, and a Fellow of the Linnean Society of London. He is passionate about shark conservation and actively works to clear the facts on misconceptions that surround sharks in the wake of JAWS.
Robert Heyer began compiling and managing the New Jersey Shark Attack File in 1998 with the addition of the New York Shark Attack File in 2017. He is the co-author of Shark Attacks of the Jersey Shore - A History.
Patricia Martz Heyer
Educator, Author, Conservationist
Patricia Martz Heyer, has lived at the Jersey shore on the Navarumsunk peninsula for more than half a century. Although a teacher for thirty-four of those years she never really gave up the role of being a student. She often notes that she would go to school forever if she could. After her retirement in 2001 she discovered her love and skill at research to be a bonus as she completed her PhD in church history as well as the writing program at the Children’s Literature Institute. She went on to publish numerous non-fiction magazine articles including topics in world culture, science, history, and public speaking. If asked to identify her interests one receives a litany of topics including research techniques, art history, forensics, marine biology, medieval iconography, anthropology, and oceanography. But above all she is an avid reader.
She has served as the President of the Red Bank Woman’s Club and is an active supporter of animal welfare and rescue, and shark conservation. Recently she coauthored two titles with her husband Robert. History Press published Shark Attacks of the Jersey Shore in 2020 and will release Shark Attacks of New York Waters in 2021. In addition, Ghosts Along the Navesink and Shrewsbury Rivers, which is a compilation of two of her previous works, was published by History Press in August of 2020. If she is not reading or writing she is exploring the local beaches collecting sea glass. She lives in Red Bank New Jersey with her husband Robert and their rescue cat, Gracie.