Authorities keeping eyes peeled for sharks on Long Island after first attack of the summer

BABYLON, N.Y. – Authorities at Suffolk County beaches are keeping close watch on the water after more shark sightings Tuesday morning. 

On Monday, a shark bit a teenage surfer. 

At Robert Moses State Park, there were shark sightings Tuesday. 

At Kismet Fire Island National Seashore, a bite was reported Monday. The Suffolk County Marine Bureau responded to a 15-year-old male surfer off Fire Island who was bitten on the heel and toes. He was precautionarily taken to Good Samaritan Hospital in West Islip, treated and released. It happened while lifeguards were off duty. 

Earlier in the day, a 15-year-old girl felt something bite her lower left leg. No one saw a shark, but swimmers were ordered out of the water for a time. She was treated for minor wounds at the scene.

Tuesday, it began all over again. 

“This morning, prior to lifeguards going on duty and our authorizing swimming, we had a complete drone patrol. And right here in front of Field 3, we saw a school of sharks. There were approximately 50 sand sharks there. We reacted to that, we did not authorize swimming. About an hour and a half later, we had not seen the sharks. So therefore we reopened to swimming. But then, a few minutes ago, just east of us in Field 4, a couple of sharks were spotted. So we again prohibited swimming, and got everybody off the beaches,” Charles Gorman, New York State Parks Regional Director said. 

The sharks are following bait and bunker fish into shallow waters, and experts say their nibbles at humans are accidental, thinking we are fish. 

It marks the first shark attacks this summer in Long Island. Last summer, in 2022, eight people were bitten by sharks.