SHARK SCARE OFF FIRE ISLAND
'Shark' attacks minutes apart
Two children were bitten in separate apparent shark attacks off Fire Island on Wednesday — with one of the victims left with a tooth embedded in his leg, authorities said.
The chilling encounters happened within minutes of each other just before 11:30 a.m., first off Sailors Haven beach, then 4½ miles away at Atlantique Beach, officials said.
“I felt something grab my leg. Then I saw something thrashing around next to me,” said Lola Pollina, 12, who was wading waist-deep near Sailors Haven. “I started screaming for my mom.”
The Islip seventh-grader and her family were celebrating her mom’s birthday when she had her moment of life imitating “Jaws.”
“It was this tannish, orangey-like body, then there was this small fin on top,” said Lola, describing the creature as three or four feet long. “When I got out, my leg was, like, bloody.”
Mom Barbara Pollina, 46, said she first saw a “shadow” circling in the water near her 5-year-old son, Roman — who was wearing a T-shirt picturing an open-mouthed shark — when it changed course and her daughter screamed out.
“I heard her yell, ‘Mommy, mommy, it’s biting me!’ ” said Barbara. “When I saw the blood, I knew [it was a shark.]”
Despite the harrowing run-in, the unflappable preteen was all smiles as she left Good Samaritan Medical Center with antibiotics in her system, a bandage around her right leg — and a new moniker.
“My new nickname is ‘Shark Bait,’ ” she cracked.
Minutes after the first attack, a 13year-old boy attending a Town of Islip-run camp fell off his boogie board at Atlantique Beach and got a bite of his own.
The teen, who wasn’t identified, stumbled out of the waves, his leg dripping blood.
He was rushed first to a nearby lifeguard tent, where Chief Lifeguard Craig Amarando treated him.
“We figured it was a shark bite right away,” said Amarando.
Lifeguards wrapped the wound, but first responders wanted to redress it and get a look for themselves.
“That’s when they confirmed also not only was it a shark bite, but they found one of the teeth still inside the boy,” said Amarando.
The tooth will be examined to determine the species of the culprit, with the National Park Service for now saying only that the bite was “consistent with a large fish.”
Ocean-facing beaches along Fire Island were closed for the rest of the day, said Town of Islip supervisor Angie Carpenter.
Beaches will reopen Thursday.