Rash of shark attacks reported in New York over July 4 weekend
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[July 06, 2023]
By Rachel Nostrant
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Four shark attacks were reported off the coast of
New York's Long Island over the holiday weekend, extending a recent
spike in such encounters in state waters, but authorities said the
victims suffered only minor injuries.
With the attacks over the weekend, the two-year total for the state
stands at 13, more than have been reported in the past 175 years,
research from the Atlantic Shark Institute shows.
"To see this many this quickly this early in the season, not
withstanding last year, I'm surprised," George Gorman, the institute's
director, said on Wednesday.
The first attacks occurred early on Monday evening, when a 15-year-old
boy surfing near Fire Island was bitten on his heel and toes. He was
hospitalized with non-life threatening injuries, Suffolk County Police
said.
The second incident, also on Monday, took place at Robert Moses State
Park, about seven miles (11.3 km) away from the first. A 15-year-old
girl suffered three puncture wounds on her left leg.
On Tuesday, two men were attacked in separate encounters, one at Quogue
Village Beach in the Hamptons, and the other near the sight of the first
attack. Neither sustained life-threatening injuries.
The species believed to be responsible is the sand tiger shark, Marie
Levine, executive director of the Shark Research Institute, said.
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"It looks like sand tiger sharks, because of their dentition and
they like to be close to shore, where they're hunting fish,” she
said, referring to bite marks on the victims.
Around 50 sand tigers were spotted by drones off Long Island on
Tuesday, and swimming in the vicinity was forbidden for more than an
hour.
Experts say sand sharks have moved closer to shore in recent years
because warmer ocean temperatures have brought their prey into
shallower waters close to land.
While no other attacks were reported over the weekend, shark
sightings were reported in Florida and Massachusetts. Video footage
from Pensacola, on Florida's Panhandle, showed startled swimmers
rushing ashore on Sunday as a black dorsal fin and tail cut through
shallow waters.
Despite increasing sand tiger shark attacks, the species has never
killed a human, experts say. But other, more deadly species have
also migrated into northern waters in recent years. In 2020, a great
white shark killed a Maine woman in the first reported shark attack
in that state's history.
(Reporting by Rachel Nostrant; Editing by Sandra Maler)
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