BABYLON, N.Y. (AP) – As bathers cooled themselves in the Atlantic surf on New York’s Fire Island last Wednesday, Reily Winston held up a smooth dogfish shark his friend had just caught fishing off a pier in an inlet behind the beach. He briefly cradled the bloodied shark in his hands before releasing it back into the ocean.
Shark sightings have become more common along Long Island’s shores this summer – and not just the mostly harmless, abundant dogfish.
Since June, there have been at least five verified encounters where sharks bit swimmers and surfers. Though there were no fatalities, sightings prompted officials to temporarily close some beaches to swimming, from New York City’s Rockaway Beach to Long Island’s Smith Point County Park, where a surfer beat a shark on its snout after it bit his calf.
George Gorman, regional director for the state park system on Long Island, referred to the recent shark interactions as “extraordinarily unusual.”
Sharks aren’t new to New York’s waters. Sand tiger, sandbar and dusky sharks are some of the more common species found near shore. But in the last century or so, New York state had documented only 13 shark attacks.