N.Y. beaches increase shark patrols
It was a classic early summer Friday at Point Lookout Beach on Long Island, with beachgoers frolicking in the frothy waves and basking under the sunny skies.
But farther out, just beyond the swimmers, was a more urgent scene: a lifeguard on a Jet Ski circling continuously while Nassau County police officers surveyed the waters by boat and helicopter.
It was an example of the stepped-up shark patrols along the more than 100 miles of Long Island's beaches that have followed a sharp uptick in sightings since last summer.
“It's become part of our daily routine,” lifeguard supervisor Justine Anderson said of the shark patrols her Town of Hempstead lifeguards have begun this summer. “We'll patrol throughout the day and respond immediately if we get a report of a shark sighting.”
In the past, Anderson said, shark sightings had been exceedingly rare. But last summer brought daily instances of sharks feeding on baitfish alarmingly close to swimmers, necessitating temporary closings of swimming areas along Long Island's oceanfront.
A 10-foot mako shark washed up at Point Lookout over the Memorial Day weekend, prompting another round of shark headlines. This past week, authorities said a man swimming at Jones Beach may have been bitten by a shark.
Lifeguards who work summers on Long Island beaches traditionally have been expected simply to keep an eye out for the occasional dorsal fin and assess the validity of reports from jittery beachgoers who swear they just saw the second coming of “Jaws.”
But now lifesaving departments on Long Island — which are at the same time facing staffing issues among a national lifeguard shortage — are taking the shark situation more seriously.
Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman staged a news conference Friday at nearby Nickerson Beach to announce that the county police would be increasing patrols this summer, both by boat and helicopter, to do hourly runs over the shoreline.
Numerous other departments across Long Island also have begun adopting shark-monitoring strategies and expanded their lifesaving tools to include drones, Jet Skis and paddleboards, as well as online shark tracking. Local police departments are also now tasked with shark patrol by boat and helicopter.
At Jones Beach and Robert Moses State Park, nearly 20 lifeguards, park police and other beach staff members have been trained to operate a fleet of seven drones as part of a new aerial shark-monitoring program.
“It's like a new world we're living in,” said Cary Epstein, a veteran guard at Jones Beach, which, along with Robert Moses State Park, employs about 375 lifeguards. “In my 25 years as a lifeguard, we never had to do this.
“This isn't `Jaws.' We're not talking about a great white, maneating machine, but if a thresher shark comes through and takes a
nibble on your foot, that could be a problem,” Epstein said.
Town of Hempstead beaches hired additional lifeguards this summer to watch out for sharks and have mobilized a shark patrol on Jet Skis, as well as a drone squad. In addition to water rescue techniques and CPR, the town's ocean guards are trained to differentiate between shark species to identify ones that are more dangerous to swimmers.
Lifeguards at nearby Long Beach, which closed swimming areas more than a dozen times last summer because of shark reports, have invested in three Jet
Skis to assist with shark patrols.
Farther east, Smith Point beach lifeguards conduct morning shark patrols on Jet Skis and paddleboards, beach officials said. They also have begun stocking tourniquets in their first aid kits in case of shark attacks.
And in East Hampton, lifeguards are using an online shark tracker to keep an eye out for the return of large ones like Mary Lee, a 4,000-pound, 17-foot-long great white that is tagged with a tracking device.
Of course, the mere mention of sharks and summer beaches frustrates marine experts, who say the animals pose no real increased danger to swimmers.
Attacks are extremely rare locally, and many experts say shark patrols do little but fuel unwarranted terror of sharks.
Hans Walters, a field scientist with the Wildlife Conservation Society's New York Aquarium who has spent over a decade studying sharks in New York waters, said the latest worry about sharks near the beaches was “very overblown.” The threat to people from sharks is practically nonexistent, he said, and there is no real evidence that local shark populations have increased in recent years.
“The danger to people is infinitesimal,” he said.