Edited by: TJVNews.com
More sharks are being spotted in the waters off Long Island, a trend that is likely to continue — and experts say that’s not necessarily a bad thing, according to an AP report.
Cleaner oceans, warmer water temperatures and a resurgence of bunker fish that sharks feed on are seen as factors, according to experts. Detection, from drones to helicopters, also has improved and reports are easily spread through social media.
“There are a lot more sharks than 10 or 15 years ago,” Christopher Paparo, manager of Stony Brook University’s Marine Sciences Center, told Newsday, as was reported by the AP. “We’re spotting sharks, whales and dolphins here. In the 1960s, we did not have sharks, whales and dolphins.”
Shark attacks in the area have been very rare until recently, with an average of about one reported per 10 years for the last century, Newsday reported. The AP reported that two lifeguards suffered bites and a third person was bitten in what possibly was a shark attack, within the last two weeks, the newspaper reported.
The New York Post reported that Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman took a swim at Long Island’s Nickerson Beach Sunday to prove to residents they don’t need to fear sharks following two recent attacks on Long Island.
Lifeguard John Mullins, 17, was attacked about 150 feet offshore of Ocean Beach Thursday while doing a training exercise, as was reported by the Post.
He was playing the role of a victim in the exercise when he was bitten on the foot by what officials believe was a 3- to 5-foot tiger sand shark. Smith Point Beach lifeguard Zack Gallo was also pretending to be a victim during a lifeguard training exercise last Sunday when he had to fight off a shark with his bare hands, as was reported by the Post.
Gallo told The Post that he suddenly felt a “sharp pinch” in his hand as he was treading water.
“That’s when I pulled it to my chest, and survival instinct kicked in,” said Gallo, who has been a lifeguard for 10 years, as was reported by the Post. “I ripped back and just started hammer-punching, and I felt the rubber texture of the head. It felt like the size of a basketball.”
He was bit on his hand and chest, but luckily only required a couple of stitches and some bandages, the report indicated.
The AP reported on July 8th that a lifeguard in the Fire Island community of Ocean Beach was bitten in recent days by a shark in New York’s Long Island waters.
Ocean Beach Mayor James Mallott told Newsday the lifeguard was performing training about 150 to 200 yards offshore and he felt something bite him near his left foot. The AP reported that the lifeguard then swam to shore, where he was taken by ambulance to a nearby hospital, treated and released.
Ocean Beach is a village on Fire Island, a barrier island off the southern shore of Long Island.
On June 30, a man swimming off Jones Beach on Long Island was bitten on the foot, possibly by a shark, according to the AP report.
At a press conference at the beach, Blakeman said, “Our lifeguards know their business. They are well trained. Our lifeguards will tell you where to swim and not to swim.”
The New York Times reported that he announced that the county police would be increasing patrols this summer, both by boat and by helicopter, to do hourly runs over the shoreline.
Numerous other departments across Long Island have also begun adopting new shark-monitoring strategies and expanded their lifesaving tools to include drones, Jet Skis and paddleboards, as well as online shark tracking, as was reported by the Times.
The NYT also reported that at Jones Beach and Robert Moses State Park, nearly 20 lifeguards, park police and other beach staff members have recently been trained to operate a fleet of seven drones as part of a new aerial shark-monitoring program.
The Post reported that Blakeman added, “I’m stressing: do not swim in unprotected waters. We have great lifeguards, follow their instructions, follow their lead, and make sure you can see our lifeguards so they can see you.”
“The shark chase the fish. They really aren’t interested in human beings. They are interested in fish,” he told swimmers.
Blakeman also issued a warning to swimmers about bird sightings in the Long Island waters. “If there are a lot of birds in the water or surrounding the water, that’s probably an area you shouldn’t swim in,” he said at the press conference.
The AP reported that In Suffolk County, lifeguards use binoculars to scan the waters for fins cresting the surface or large schools of fish that attract sharks.
Two years ago, lifeguards at Smith Point launched two water scooters to investigate after seeing activity a mile from shore. The AP reported that they eventually had to clear the beach after an 18-foot (5.5-meter) great white shark, which had been feeding on a whale carcass, came with a quarter-mile of the beach.
It was the first time in more than 30 years that a shark sighting prompted that response, Keith Kolar, the assistant chief of the county’s lifeguards, told Newsday, as was reported by the AP.
Experts say the increase in the number of sharks is a sign that conservation efforts have succeeded in helping restore ecological balance to the oceans, after overfishing, pollution and a movement to kill sharks partly inspired by the 1975 movie “Jaws” reduced their numbers.
The AP reported that the United States recorded 47 unprovoked shark bites in 2021, a 42% increase from 33 incidents reported in 2020, according to records kept by Florida Museum of Natural History’s International Shark Attack File.
Smaller sharks, which are seen closer to shore more often than larger ones, help keep prey species in check, and many shark types are scavengers that keep the ocean cleaner and healthier, as was reported by the AP.
More encounters between people and sharks could swing public sentiment the other way, however.
“I’m very concerned that the perception I fought against for a couple of decades will change,” Bob Hueter, chief scientist for OCEARCH, a global nonprofit that conducts research on sharks, told the newspaper.
Long Island is not the only place where the number of shark attacks have increased.
On June 29th, the AP reported that great white shark researchers on Cape Cod are reminding visitors that warmer weather signals not just the start of the busy tourist season, but also the arrival of the region’s famous predators.
July tends to be when great whites appear in earnest as the cape’s waters warm, with sightings peaking from August through October, Megan Winton, a scientist with the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy, said during a news conference at the organization’s offices in Chatham, as was reported by the AP.
“Just know that large sharks are here,” she said. “They’re a constant presence from June to the fall.”
A great white sighting forced the temporary closure of Head of the Meadow Beach in Truro on Cape Cod, as was reported by the AP.
Greg Skomal, a state marine biologist who has been studying the region’s great whites for decades, said the animals still tend to be concentrated on the Atlantic Ocean-facing side of the cape, where they feast on a flourishing seal population.
The AP also reported on July 8th that a lifeguard in the Fire Island community of Ocean Beach is the latest person to be bitten in recent days by a shark in New York’s Long Island waters.
Ocean Beach Mayor James Mallott told Newsday the lifeguard was performing training about 150 to 200 yards offshore on Thursday morning and he felt something bite him near his left foot. The lifeguard then swam to shore, where he was taken by ambulance to a nearby hospital, treated and released.
Ocean Beach is a village on Fire Island, a barrier island off the southern shore of Long Island.
Speaking to the New York Times, Long Island lifeguard supervisor Justine Anderson said they have increased shark patrols along the more than 100 miles of Long Island’s beaches following a sharp uptick in sightings last summer.
“It’s become part of our daily routine We’ll patrol throughout the day and respond immediately if we get a report of a shark sighting,” Anderson told the paper.
Despite the fact that until this time, shark sightings have a been exceptionally rare, she said that last summer brought daily instances of sharks feeding on bait fish alarmingly close to swimmers on the Long Island shores. This caused swimming areas to be temporarily closed.
The Times also reported that over Memorial Day weekend of this year, a 10-foot mako shark washed up at Point Lookout on Long Island.
Lifeguards who work summers on Long Island beaches have traditionally been expected simply to keep an eye out for the occasional dorsal fin and assess the validity of reports from jittery beachgoers who swear they just saw the second coming of “Jaws,” as was reported by the Times.
This summer has seen a national shortage of lifeguards, but most are dealing with the rising number of shark attacks with the appropriate gravitas.
Speaking to the NYT, Cary Epstein, a veteran lifeguard at Jones Beach on Long Island said, “It’s like a new world we’re living in. In my 25 years as a lifeguard, we never had to do this.”
Epstein added, “This isn’t ‘Jaws,’ we’re not talking about a great white, man-eating machine — but if a thresher shark comes through and takes a nibble on your foot, that could be a problem.”
Following Epstein’s lead, a new drone unit at Jones Beach has been established. The NYT reported that he began monitoring the waters last summer with his own personal drone after a fellow guard was gashed in the leg while swimming, presumably by a shark. A day later, swimming was suspended because of a shark sighting.
“We’re definitely on alert and doing our due diligence,” Epstein said, noting that they were “not searching for sharks unnecessarily.”
In East Hampton out in Suffolk County, lifeguards are using an online shark tracker to keep an eye out for the return of large ones like Mary Lee, a 4,000-pound, 17-foot-long great white that is tagged with a tracking device, according to the NYT report.
Every summer, affluent New Yorkers and others gather in the vacation enclave that has become synonymous with the preferred summer destination for billionaires, a panoply of celebrities as well as a bevy of artists and other assorted entrepreneurs.
As to the startling uptick in shark attacks, there are those experts who believe the headlines are exceptionally exaggerated.
Speaking to the NYT, Hans Walters, a field scientist with the Wildlife Conservation Society’s New York Aquarium who has spent over a decade studying sharks in New York waters, told the paper that the latest hype over sharks near the beaches was “very overblown.”
He told the Times that “the danger to people is infinitesimal.” He added that in recent years, the existential threat to people from shark attacks is practically nonexistent and that no real evidence exists that proves that local shark populations have increased.
Walters told the Times that beach going swimmers should be reassured in the fact that sharks are not interested in them as prey.
“If anyone’s been in the ocean, they’ve already swum with sharks,” he said. “They just don’t know it.”
(Sources: The New York Times, AP, The New York Post)
(Additional reporting by Fern Sidman)
