Reed Beach, NY — On a classic early summer Friday at Point Lookout Beach on Long Island, beach goers were playing with bubbling waves and sunbathing under the clear skies.
But just beyond the swimmer, there was a more urgent scene. Jetski guards were constantly turning while Nassau County police officers were investigating the waters by boat and helicopter.
This was an example of an enhanced shark patrol along more than 100 miles of long island beaches, where sightings surged last summer.
“It’s become part of our daily lives,” said Justin Anderson, a shark lifeguard supervisor, on a patrol that her Hempstead town lifeguard began this summer. “We patrol all day and respond immediately to any reports of shark sightings.”
In the past, Anderson said shark sightings were extremely rare. But last summer, sharks brought a daily example of feeding fish surprisingly close to swimmers, requiring a temporary closure of the swimming area along the long island’s oceanfront.
So far this summer, 10-foot mako sharks have been launched at Point Lookout over Memorial Day weekends, with shark headlines popping up one after another. And just this week, officials said a man swimming in Jones Beach might have been bitten by a shark.
Summer lifeguards on the beaches of Long Island have traditionally been expected to keep an eye on their dorsal fins and assess the validity of reports from jerky beach fans who vow to see the Second Coming of “Jaws.” I did.
But now, the lifesaving department of Long Island is facing the problem of staffing in the midst of a shortage of national guards, but is taking the shark situation more seriously.
On Friday, Nassau County executive Bruce Blakeman will hold a news conference at nearby Nickerson Beach, where county police will increase hourly patrols of the coastline, both by boat and helicopter, this summer. Was announced.
Many other departments in Long Island have also begun adopting new shark surveillance strategies and expanded their life-saving tools such as drones, jet skis, paddleboarding and online shark tracking. The local police station is also currently tasked with shark patrols by boat and helicopter.
At Jones Beach and Robert Moses State Park, nearly 20 observers, park police, and other beach staff have recently been trained to operate seven drones as part of a new aerial shark surveillance program.
“It’s like the new world we live in,” said Carrie Epstein, a veteran guard at Jones Beach, who employs about 375 lifeguards along with Robert Moses State Park. “For 25 years as a lifeguard, we didn’t have to do this.”
“This is not” Jaws “. If great white sharks come in and bite their feet, that can be a problem, “Epstein said. ..
Jones Beach’s new drone unit will be led by Epstein. He began monitoring the body of water with his own personal drone last summer, perhaps after his fellow guards gushed his legs while swimming by sharks. The next day, swimming was interrupted by witnessing a shark.
“We’re definitely vigilant and due diligence,” Epstein said. “We weren’t looking for sharks unnecessarily.”
On the beaches of the town of Hempstead, this summer we hired additional guards to watch out for sharks and mobilized shark patrols for jet skis and drone corps. In addition to water rescue techniques and CPR, town marine guards are trained to distinguish between shark species and identify those that are more dangerous to swimmers.
A nearby Long Beach guard who closed the swimming area more than 12 times last summer to report sharks invested in three jet skis to assist in shark patrols.
Further east, beach officials said Smith Point’s beach lifeguards patrol morning sharks on jet skis and paddleboards. They also began preparing tourniquets in their first aid kits in case of a shark attack.
At East Hampton, Lifeguards are using an online shark tracking device to keep an eye out for the return of big things like Mary Lee, a 4,000-pound, 17-foot-long large white tagged with a tracking device. ..
Of course, just mentioning sharks and summer beaches frustrates marine experts who say that animals don’t really pose a danger to swimmers.
Attacks are extremely rare locally, and many experts say that shark patrols do little, but contribute to shark injustice.
Hans Walters, a field scientist at the Wildlife Conservation Society’s New York Aquarium and a researcher of sharks in the New York waters for over a decade, said recent hype about sharks near the beach was “extremely exaggerated.” rice field.
He said there is virtually no threat to people from sharks, and there is no real evidence that local shark populations have increased in recent years.
“The danger to people is negligible,” he said.
Probably more than a dozen shark attacks have been recorded in New York waters for centuries, most of which are gouaches from accidental collisions rather than aggressive bites by sharks. He said it was likely.
According to Walter, swimmers need to ensure that sharks aren’t interested in them.
“If anyone was in the ocean, they were already swimming with sharks,” he said. “They just don’t know that.”
According to Walters, the main reasons for the increase in sightings are increased surveillance and increased sharing of photos of private phones and drones that are widespread and inevitably headlines on social media.
“These sharks aren’t looking for people,” he said. “They have been wandering the sea for millions of years and there are no more sharks here this year, last year or the year before. I’m just looking for more.”
However, in the face of growing concerns from the general public, many beach operators are trying to ensure that they are aware of them to those who go to the beach.
“When Mako was launched to the shore, it spurred concerns from the inhabitants,” said Don Krabin, the town’s supervisor at Hempstead. “So we want them to rest assured that our people are taking all these precautions, that everything is being monitored, and that we are going beyond the top. did.”
On Long Beach, spinner sharks feeding offshore are regularly witnessed, said lifeguard chief Paul Gillespie.
However, he dismissed much of the turmoil against sharks as a media and political hype, he added: coastline. “
Sharks feeding hundreds of yards away are acceptable on the beaches of the town of East Hampton, but swimming is restricted farther than 200 yards from the coast, the town’s lifeguard chief said. One John Ryan Jr. said.
“They are feeding — they aren’t cruising the coastline looking for people,” he said. “But if something happens without doing anything, it’s a problem.”
Long Island fisherman Chris Stefanou, 26, who participates in a federal shark tagging program that monitors shark migration, said he saw more sharks in local waters each year as water temperatures rose. I did.
According to Stephanow, he caught nearly 1,000 sharks (up to 14 feet long) while surfcasting from a local beach. The last 9 years. (He will show off his catch on Instagram.)
“There are more and more sharks in the water, which is scary,” he said. “But it’s actually a good thing because it reflects a healthy ecosystem.”