At least five people have suffered bites while swimming at Long Island beaches this week, part of an ongoing uptick in shark encounters in the area. Though the incidence of shark bites is still relatively rare, officials have ramped up shark patrols in response.
Two bites occurred on July 3. The first was a 15-year-old girl who was reportedly bit by something in the water at Robert Moses Beach shortly before 2:00 p.m. Though many have speculated it was a shark, it is unclear exactly what bit her. “She didn’t see what bit her, the lifeguards didn’t know what bit her, the drone operator checked the area, we didn’t see,” Long Island State Parks Regional Director George Gorman told Newsday. “So we can’t definitively say what bit her.” This was at the same beach where, on July 4th, a drone patrol observed 50 sand sharks in the water, prompting officials to close the beach for an hour and a half.
Three hours later, 15-year-old Peter Banculli was surfing at Kismet Beach when he was bitten on his left foot. Banculli’s heel and toes were injured, but still intact after the bite. Though he is still recovering from the encounter, Banculli seemed to be in fine spirits in an interview with News 12 Long Island, telling them he was, “Very excited to go back and start shredding again.”
Then, again on July 4, three more beachgoers were bitten. The first occurred at 1:50 p.m. at Quogue Village Beach, where a 47-year-old man was swimming in chest-deep water when he suffered lacerations to his right knee. According to the Quogue Village Police Department, “A shark was not physically observed, however, the bite was from a larger marine animal.” He was transported to a nearby hospital “for treatment of the non-life-threatening injuries.”
Around the same time, a 49-year-old man was bitten on the right hand while swimming near Fire Island Pines. Two-and-a-half hours later, a woman swimming west of Cherry Grove was bitten on the thigh, as the Washington Post reports.
“In response to the shark encounters as well as incidents reported in other police jurisdictions this week, the Suffolk County Police Marine Bureau and Aviation Section is conducting increased patrols at our beaches,” read a statement on the Suffolk County PD’s Facebook page. “The SCPD is also utilizing drones for a birds-eye view on the local waterways.”
“While residents are encouraged to enjoy the summer at the beach, swimmers should remain vigilant when in the water. If you see a shark, or a pod of bunker fish that attract the predators, calmly exit the water and alert the lifeguard on duty or a local official.”
New York’s Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation has also increased its water surveillance ever since a similar spate of shark encounters last year. “We have great surveillance, drones and lifeguards scanning and checking the beaches,” Gorman told CNN.
Though the uptick in encounters has some beachgoers on edge, it is important to remember that the risk of shark encounters still remains low. “After two years of looking at hundreds of hours of footage, basically, our conclusion is that sharks ignore people,” Christopher Lowe, a Marine Biology Professor and director of the Shark Lab at California State University Long Beach, told CNN after last year’s encounters. In the rare instances where sharks and humans do collide, it seems that the bites are a result of the sharks attempting to defend themselves or mistaking humans for food. “People are bitten but rarely consumed, and that tells us that we are not on the shark’s menu,” said Lowe.
