There were thousands of people on Robert Moses Beach on New York’s Long Island on Saturday, but in this heatwave few were venturing into the Atlantic water beyond their ankles or knees.
Mothers kept their children close. An array of boats, helicopters and drones moved up and down beyond the surf. And teams of lifeguards aloft in their posts were poised with whistles to order people out of the water.
“Even if we have a sighting of a shark we have to take everyone out of the water,” said Orlando Diaz, a lifeguard with 30 years’ experience who estimated that just on this stretch of beach the guards had already done so 10 times this year. “We see whales, we see dolphins, sometimes stingrays, but it kind of stinks when we have a shark sighting because it ruins the day for the beachgoers.”
But, Diaz reasoned, “They belong in the ocean. We don’t.”
That perspective – in essence, “our house, our rules” – is one that beachgoers have rapidly adapted to during the great (white) shark scare of 2022. There have been at least six shark-human encounters along this stretch of coast, none fatal, but some requiring medical attention.
In early July, lifeguard Zach Gallo was playing a victim in a water training exercise when a 4-5ft-long shark bit him in his chest and right hand off Smith Point Beach, 70 miles east of Manhattan. Gallo was able to walk out of the water, bandaged and treated at a local hospital and soon returned to work.
Two weeks later, after authorities stepped up patrols, a juvenile great white washed up on a beach nearby. The tide took the carcass away before scientists could study it.
The waters off Long Island are known to marine biologists as a nursery for the species, and it’s a testament to oceanic health – and successful long-term conservation efforts – that they are here and feeding on schools of bait fish, mainly Atlantic menhaden. The rise in encounters is not complicated to explain: warmer sea temperatures mean more food and more reason for sharks to come around.
“There’s also a dozen other species, including sand tiger sharks, sandbar sharks and dusky sharks, that share the habitat,” Tobey Curtis, a fishery management and migratory species specialist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said in a recent interview. “If there’s more sharks and more people in the same place at the same time there’s more chance of an interaction.”
Most of the time, Curtis pointed out, sharks and people are very close to each other, with people simply unaware of it. But with more food, more sharks, and more people at the beaches escaping brutal heatwaves, interactions have become more commonplace.
“The sharks’ natural food is close to the beaches, so the sharks are in there chasing their prey, and there’s thousands of New York swimmers in there, so that’s led to this cluster of bites,” Curtis adds. The likely culprits, he adds, are not young great whites but the sand tigers.
But for many, the owner of the teeth – large or small – is of less concern than the teeth themselves. And of course their sharpness and the jaws behind them. One mother on Saturday said her kids weren’t going in the water.
“I would still go in but maybe not that far out,” said Dawn Gary, laughing. “This is the shark’s home and we’re just using a little bit of it.”
Another said she was telling her kids to stay close. “Because of the talk about it, it makes you think about it, so even I didn’t go in much further than the kids,” Suzanne Francis said.
Long Island surfer Scott Carberry said he had noticed changes in the water. Armadas of red jellyfish had vanished, and there was less seaweed.
“All of a sudden we’re seeing tons of dolphin so I guess that means the waters are cleaner,” Carberry said.
Still, the cleaner waters aren’t enough to entice Carberry’s wife, Liz.
“I would normally go in but not this year,” she said. “I’m good. I don’t want to get bit by a shark.”
Last week, in response to the rise in shark encounters, New York’s governor, Kathy Hochul, called on state agencies to implement increased patrols on the land, in the air with drones and helicopters, and at sea, and to expand education for beachgoers about sharks.
Swimming, the governor said, would be suspended for at least an hour after a shark sighting, so that the shoreline can be inspected by a drone. “Our top priority is their safety,” Hochul added.
Greg Metzger, chief field coordinator for the shark research and education program at the South Fork Natural History Museum in Bridgehampton, New York, said he had been catching, tagging and releasing lots of sharks of different species this year.
Metzger said conservation efforts were starting to pay off, adding: “It’s not climate change, it’s not Donald Trump, not that sharks love to eat humans, it’s just positive conservation efforts that are helping prey and predator.”
But, Metzger said, in percentage terms, with more sharks and humans both in the water, the chances of an “encounter” are probably the same as they ever were: near zero.
However, for a species researcher, the summer of 2022 has been a godsend. “We’re catching the heck out of them and getting so much data it’s fantastic,” he said.
Perhaps the best chance for swimmers to reduce shark-human encounters is becoming educated on when to swim – and how to do so more safely.
Early morning and evening, when fish start moving and feeding in the low light, is not so good. If you see fish schooling, birds feeding, or whales and dolphins, then sharks will be in the area to potentially feed.
“All the drones, lifeguards, helicopters in the world are not going to prevent humans and sharks interacting,” Metzger said. “If you see a lot of activity, get out of the water.”
