Sharks bit at least two swimmers on the beaches of Fire Island and another swimmer in the Hamptons on Tuesday, authorities said, startling vacationers, closing beaches and bringing the tally of possible bites at the Long Island summer destinations to five in just two days.
On Fire Island, a shark bit the right hand of a 49-year-old man as he paddled off Fire Island Pines, and another shark punctured the thigh of an adult woman as she swam in Cherry Grove, according to the Suffolk County Police Department.
In Southampton, a 47-year-old man swimming in chest-deep waters at Quogue Village Beach was gashed in his right knee by a shark, the Quogue Police Department said.
The July 4 holiday, which began with a swarm of sharks delaying the opening of Fire Island’s Robert Moses State Park, ended early in multiple Fire Island beach towns, including Ocean Beach and Seaview, where swimmers were ordered out before 5 p.m. despite a lack of shark sightings there.
The three victims, who were not publicly identified, received treatment at local hospitals for non-life-threatening injuries, according to authorities. It was not clear what type of sharks were involved.
But the flurry of bites came as an unheard-of barrage in New York’s modern history.
“It was like ‘Jaws’ re-lived,” joked Thomas Ruskin, the Seaview Association president. “The shark season seems to have started a lot earlier than last summer.”
Fifty-seven shark bites were reported worldwide last year, with New York logging eight in a historic spike. The increase is a product of cleaner water and large schools of baitfish that bring the sharks close to shore, according to experts.
Ian Levine, a village trustee in Ocean Beach who led its fire department for a decade, said of the sharks: “This is their world. We’re visiting them.”
“This is the first few days that there have been a lot of people in the water,” he added.
The beach at Robert Moses State Park, on Fire Island’s western end, opened to swimmers 90 minutes late Tuesday morning after officials spied a school of about 50 sharks swimming 200 yards from the beach, the state Office of Parks said.
The beach opened at about 9:30 a.m., after an hour passed without a sighting, authorities said.
The school was believed to be made up of sand tiger sharks, said the Parks Office. Sand tiger sharks typically grow between 7 and 10 feet long and are common in New York waters, but do not often swim in large schools.
A day earlier, a confirmed shark bite was reported at Fire Island’s Kismet Beach, and a possible shark bite was reported at Robert Moses State Park.
In Kismet, a Fire Island community directly east of Robert Moses State Park, a shark nipped a 15-year-old surfer’s left heel and toes on Monday afternoon, the Suffolk County cops said.
The teen, whose heel and toes remained intact, swam to shore and was later treated at Samaritan University Hospital in West Islip, the police department said.
Earlier Monday afternoon, a 15-year-old girl swimming near Robert Moses’ Field 3 beach was pricked by marine life, leaving her with three small puncture wounds on her left leg, the Parks Office said. She did not go to the hospital.
“We cannot definitively say what bit her,” said George Gorman, the regional director for New York State Parks on Long Island. Lifeguards and a drone operator could not see any sharks in the water, Gorman said.
New York has not had a deadly shark attack in many decades. And shark attacks are typically accidents — big fish do not seem to relish the taste of human flesh.
The mighty, seal-chasing great white sharks that have caused chaos and closures on Cape Cod beaches in recent years have not seemed as present at New York beaches.
Still, a wave of shark encounters rattled Long Islanders last summer, and prompted some to call the season the Summer of Sharks.
Going into the summer, the state added 10 new drones to its shark surveillance program, according to Gov. Hochul’s office. On Tuesday, four drones were flying over Robert Moses State Park, Gorman said.
Chris Stefanou, a 27-year-old fisherman and conservationist who tags sharks, said people should not be overly concerned about the shark sightings.
“They’re not out here to attack us,” Stefanou said of the sharks, adding that swimming becomes riskier in baitfish-filled waters, where the predators might confuse people with lunch. “Just be cautious of where you’re swimming.”
_______
