A 20-year-old woman was most likely bitten by a shark on Wednesday at Jones Beach on Long Island in New York in what an official said was the first such attack of the season at a beach at a New York State park.
The woman, who was not publicly identified, was waist deep in the water around 4:15 p.m. at the Central Mall beachfront of Jones Beach State Park when she reported being bitten by “unknown marine wildlife,” the State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation said in a statement on Friday.
The woman sustained minor cuts to her left foot and leg, the statement said. Lifeguards and emergency workers responded, and the woman was transported to a hospital. Her injuries were not life-threatening, according to the statement.
She did not see what caused her injuries, but biologists from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation concluded that the bite “most likely” involved a juvenile sand tiger shark.
The bite was the first of the season at a New York State park beach and “hopefully the last,” George Gorman, a regional director for the Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, wrote in an email on Friday.
Swimming at Jones Beach was suspended for the rest of the day on Wednesday as the authorities used drones to search for dangerous marine life. Before reopening the beach on Thursday morning, park police and staff used drones to search for large schools of fish and other marine life.
State biologists used photos of the woman’s injuries and information from people at the scene in their investigation. However, they did not see the animal that caused the bite, so a full consensus on the species of shark was not reached, according to the statement.
Sand tiger sharks can grow to up to 10.5 feet long, according to the Department of Environmental Conservation website. That is much smaller than the 25-foot great white shark depicted in “Jaws,” which hit theaters 50 years ago this month.
The bite in New York came after a flurry of recent shark attacks reported at vacation hot spots.
Sharks bit two people in their legs on Hilton Head Island, S.C., last week. One of the victims was a 12-year-old girl who was airlifted to a hospital in Savannah, Ga.
This month, a shark nearly severed a 9-year-old girl’s hand while she was snorkeling off the coast of Boca Grande, Fla. The girl was taken to Tampa General Hospital, where doctors were able to “put her hand back together,” her family said in a statement.
New York made headlines in recent years for shark encounters that prompted beach closures.
In early July 2023, several people were bitten by sharks on Long Island. And there were similar incidents in 2022 that forced beachgoers to take shark sightings and interactions more seriously.
There have been 24 unprovoked shark attacks in New York State since 1837, according to the Florida Museum’s International Shark Attack File, a database of known shark attacks.
To minimize the risk of shark interactions, New York parks officials advise swimmers to avoid areas with seals, schools of fish, splashing fish, diving seabirds and murky water. Beachgoers should also avoid swimming at dawn, dusk and night and stay close to shore.
Hannah Ziegler is a general assignment reporter for The Times, covering topics such as crime, business, weather, pop culture and online trends.
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