by Several shark encounters and sightings were reported this week, from the East Coast to the Gulf Coast.
Five incidents involving sharks or suspected sharks occurred Monday and Tuesday off New York, authorities said. All the victims survived.
In Fire Island, New York, a 15-year-old boy who was surfing Monday night was bitten by a shark on his heel and toes, Suffolk County police said.
His heel and toes remained intact and he was hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries, police said.
Also Monday, a 15-year-old girl suffered stab wounds from an unknown source in the water at Robert Moses State Park in Babylon, New York, the state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation said in a statement.
The girl was treated at the scene by paramedics, the agency said. The incident prompted authorities to deploy drones to patrol Robert Moses and Jones Beach State Parks.
Drone footage recorded several sharks in the water off Long Island around 8 a.m. Tuesday. Officials said they were most likely sand tiger sharks, which can grow longer than 10 feet.
At around 1:50 p.m. Tuesday, a 47-year-old man wading through the waters off Quogue, a town on Long Island, was bitten in the right knee and sustained lacerations, police said in a statement.
The man did not see what attacked him. Quogue police said in a statement that “the bite was from a larger marine animal.”
The bather was taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, they said. After the incident, authorities said they encouraged visitors to stay out of the water.
Minutes after that attack, a man swimming in the Fire Island village of Fire Island Pines was bitten on his right hand by a shark, Suffolk County Police said.
The 49-year-old man was taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, police said.
A few hours later, on the beach at Sailors Haven on Fire Island, a woman believed to be in her 50s was bitten, according to Nick Clemons of Fire Island National Seashore.
National Park Service lifeguards responded and Suffolk County Police took her to a hospital for treatment of a minor injury, Clemons said in a statement.
Shark sightings were also reported in Florida.
On Monday, a woman recorded video showing a shark circling in warm, shallow water off Navarra Beach, where many of those who had gone into the water turned and fled.
Another video showed a hammerhead shark gliding near a stand-up paddleboarder in Surfside, a South Florida city on the Atlantic coast.
To help reduce the chance of a shark encounter, experts say to avoid wearing shiny clothing or shiny jewelry. If a shark is seen, “remain calm and maintain your position as quietly as possible,” according to the Florida Museum, the shark’s home. International Shark Attack File.
“Most sharks are just curious and will go away of their own free will,” he says.
But if they get close, run away, and if that doesn’t work, fight back, experts say. The museum says to hit a shark on the tip of its nose if you have to.
Earlier this year, the shark attack archive found that New York’s eight unprovoked attacks last year were an annual record for the state, which had reported just 12 such attacks since 1837.
The file says that young sand tiger sharks are drawn to the Long Island and Fire Island areas because of their protective bays. Most of the bites on Long Island last year may have occurred when those sharks came ashore looking for bait, he said.
Despite those incidents, the number of unprovoked attacks dropped in 2022 to tie with 2020 for the fewest reported incidents worldwide in the past 10 years, according to the file.
Tavleen Tarrant, valeriya antonshchuk and Yasmeen Persaud contributed.
