Bathers were asked not to go in the water after lifeguards spotted sharks at Lido Beach. Photo / Getty Images
Bathers were asked not to go in the water after lifeguards spotted sharks at Lido Beach. Photo / Getty Images
Swimmers in Long Island, New York, have been warned to only go waist deep in the water after a spate of shark attacks left at least four people injured this month.
Authorities have deployed a drone to monitor shark activity off the popular beaches, where a lawyer, a tourist and two lifeguards were all bitten in separate incidents.
"We are telling people that if they are swimming, they need to swim in lifeguard areas. They should only go waist deep and that they should be aware of their surroundings," Ian Levine, the fire department chief at Ocean Beach, told CNN.
Long Island, a large peninsula that stretches more than 120 miles to the east of New York City, had previously used drones during fires and search and rescue operations, but was now deploying them to search for sharks, Steve Bellone, Suffolk County executive, said during a briefing.
One large drone being used in the search for the fish can house a spotlight and a speaker to broadcast messages, while other smaller drones provide thermal imaging and have high-definition video.
The extra patrols come after a number of attacks this month. The first occurred on July 3, when Zach Gallo, a 33-year-old Suffolk County lifeguard, was bitten by what he believes was a sand tiger shark during a training exercise. Two beaches were subsequently closed temporarily, and he only returned to work on Thursday after doctors cleared him for duty.
"I think this was just a curious animal," he told The New York Times, adding: " I just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time."
Two more beachgoers suffered shark bites on Wednesday. Shawn Donnelly, 41, a New York attorney, was bitten on his leg by a shark while in the water on a paddleboard in the morning. He punched the shark, causing it to swim away, then he rode a wave back to shore.
A lone swimmer visits Long Beach, New York. Photo / Getty Images
Donnelly was taken to the hospital but said afterwards: "I don't begrudge him. He was just doing his job - being a shark."
Smith Point Beach had previously had no reported shark bites and had never been closed to swimming since it opened in 1959.
The beach was reopened after no sharks were found in the area, but a second 49-year-old man was bitten in the afternoon. He was standing in waist-deep water when a shark "came up from behind and bit him on the left wrist and buttocks," police said in a statement.
He walked out of the water but was taken to the hospital to treat his non-life-threatening wounds.
Last summer, a number of black tip and spinner sharks were spotted just off the Hamptons - a popular tourist spot. Earlier this year, an eight-foot mako shark was found washed up on Long Island.
Scientists point finger at climate change
"I'm hopeful that this is an aberration and that this goes back to being a very rare thing," Bellone said.
Scientists have pointed toward climate change being responsible for drawing more sharks further north during the summer months.
"Climate change is definitely playing a role, especially in the sightings we're seeing this year and last year," said Chris Paparo, a shark researcher at the South Fork National History Museum.
"As sea temperatures are rising due to climate change, a lot of fish populations are shifting north," he added.
The United States recorded 47 unprovoked shark bites in 2021, a 42 per cent increase from 33 incidents reported in 2020, according to records kept by the Florida Museum of Natural History's International Shark Attack File.
