For the second straight summer, July has started out like a scene from "Jaws" on New York beaches. Four swimmers were attacked and bitten over the past holiday weekend.
Last summer, for about a three week period on New York's south shore beaches, ocean swimmers were on shark alert. Six victims were bitten during that time period in rather shallow water, on the white sands of Long Island. This year, New York's Governor Kathy Hochul says that the state parks are ready to take on the monsters of the deep.
A 35-foot humpback whale, weighing about 32 tons, washed ashore on a New York beach on Monday. The massive mammal was discovered in the early morning hours along Lido Beach, on the southern shores of Nassau County. Along with the sadness of one of these giants of the ocean dying, is the concern that this is the 10th such beaching on Long Island in 2 months.
It has not been an easy summer swimming on the white sandy beaches of Long Island this year. Six people were bitten by sharks in a little more than a two-week span. The painful swimming experience continued on Sunday at Jones Beach State Park and Robert Moses State Park, thanks to a marine organism called a Pelagia Noctiluca.
In an unprecedented time of shark attacks along the south shore beaches of Long Island, the New York State Parks Department, along with other town parks are being forced to close their beaches during their prime season. Tens of thousands of New Yorkers head to Jones Beach and the surrounding areas to soak in the summer sun. However, with a real-life "Jaws" situation going on, Thursday more beaches were closed due to multiple shark sightings.
Truly out of the pages of "Jaws", New York beachgoers have a real question on their hands. Is is safe to go in the water? And, if you are on any of the southern Long Island beaches from the Rockaways to Montauk, the answer right now is NO. On Wednesday night, the 5th shark bit victim in two weeks and the 2nd in ONE DAY occurred in waist deep water off the beaches of Fire Island, less than 50 miles from where a surfer was hit Wednesday morning in Smith Point.
With 3 shark attacks in a little more than a week off New York beaches has local officials, marine biologists and scientists looking for answers. According to the The Florida Museum of Natural History's International Shark Attack File says there have been 10 unprovoked incidents of human-shark interactions in New York over the past 100 years, including the 3 from last week! That is one every ten yeas and now there have been 3 in a week? Something is different and according to local researchers, it could be a good thing.