Good morning. It’s Thursday. Today we’ll look at how concerned about sharks you should be if your plans for the long Fourth of July weekend include going to the beach. We’ll also get details on the continuing war of words between President Trump and Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for New York City mayor.
It’s a safe bet that more cameras will be trained on the beaches off Long Island over the Fourth of July weekend than Steven Spielberg used in making “Jaws.” State agencies have 28 camera-equipped drones they can send up, including one that can drop life jackets as needed. Local governments have their own aerial equipment.
If the heart-pounding theme from that movie is not already running through your head, this is when it might start. But shark experts maintain that the chance of a close encounter with a shark is unlikely, even though a 20-year-old woman apparently had one at Jones Beach last week. She sustained a bite on one foot and a gash on one leg, officials said.
“I tell people, have fun — the threat is minimal,” said John Sparks, a curator in the department of ichthyology at the American Museum of Natural History. “You’re always swimming around sharks. You always have been. My bottom line: You shouldn’t be any more worried than you’ve ever been.”
Nothing unusual happened on Monday when the Nassau County executive, Bruce Blakeman, went for a swim not far from where the woman was bitten. But Blakeman, and any creatures circling in the water at the same time, were being watched by a marine patrol boat and a helicopter. And on Wednesday, Gov. Kathy Hochul said that New York State was “continuing to strengthen our shark surveillance capabilities.”
There are more sharks to see, Sparks said. The shark population has increased since the early 2000s. So have the population of fish they feed on, like menhaden — and if fish down the food chain go closer to the shore, the sharks could follow. Some experts say that the menhaden population has grown thanks to a state law that barred fishermen from using big nets to target schools of that species of fish, which sharks gobble up. The nets, some as large as six city blocks, were weighted down at the bottom and could be closed at the top, trapping the fish.
To watch for sharks, the state added six drones to the 22 it already had, bringing the total to 28. It also trained eight new drone pilots, boosting to 48 the number of drone operators on the park agency’s staff and among the ranks of the State Park Police and lifeguards at state-run beaches like Jones Beach. And if beachgoers see something, they can upload photographs to the New York Shark Spotter, an app maintained by the State Department of Environmental Conservation.
The state’s shark safety guidance includes avoiding areas where there are schools of fish that could attract sharks looking for a snack. Officials also say to avoid swimming at dawn, at dusk or at night; to stay close enough to the shore that your feet can touch the bottom; and to stay out of murky water.
Murky water figured in the incident off Jones Beach last week and in the uncertainty about exactly what happened. The woman was in waist-deep water when she felt a bite, but the water was cloudy, according to George Gorman, the parks agency’s regional director for Long Island. “She didn’t see what bit her, and the lifeguards didn’t see,” he said.
Marine experts looked at photographs of the woman’s injuries, which were not life-threatening, and the consensus was that she had been bitten by a juvenile sand tiger shark. It can grow to more than 10 feet long, which is less than half the length of the great white depicted in “Jaws.”
Somehow, great whites know what tastes good and what doesn’t, Sparks said. “When they bite a human, they spit it out,” he said. “When they get a seal, they swallow it. They’re able to discern, at some level, seal from human.” By contrast, sand tiger sharks are “generally docile.”
“They’re not the tiger sharks you hear about that attack people,” he said. “Much smaller mouth,” although still nasty, he said. “Their teeth really stick out of their jaws. Even an accidental bump could cause damage.”
Weather
Expect a mostly sunny day and a temperature that should reach 91. In the evening there is a small chance of rain, with a dip to about 70.
ALTERNATE-SIDE PARKING
In effect until Friday (the Fourth of July).
The latest Metro news
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Ruling in Sean “Diddy” Combs trial: The disgraced mogul was acquitted of sex trafficking and racketeering charges, but convicted of transportation to engage in prostitution, after an eight-week trial that included testimony about drug use and violence against two former girlfriends.
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A bodega crime wave: Common tools and a little muscle have fueled A.T.M. robberies that may have netted one burglary crew hundreds of thousands of dollars in a matter of months.
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Lucy the Pig can stay: Health officials told the pygmy pig’s owners that she would have to leave the city. The city announced a temporary reprieve after neighbors and family friends created a social media hashtag, wrote petitions and recruited local lawmakers.
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Trump moves to make an interim U.S. attorney permanent: The president nominated Alina Habba, his former campaign spokeswoman and personal lawyer, who had little experience as a prosecutor when she became the interim U.S. attorney in New Jersey in March.
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Lives lived: Mortimer Matz, a New York public relations impresario who cocreated the annual Nathan’s hot dog eating contest on Coney Island, died at 100.
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What we’re watching: On “New York Times Close Up with Sam Roberts,” Emma Fitzsimmons, The Times’s City Hall bureau chief, discusses Zohran Mamdani’s win in the Democratic primary; Emily Anthes, a science reporter for The Times, analyzes cuts to the National Institutes of Health; and Emma Bubola, a Times correspondent based in Rome, takes us inside the over-the-top wedding of Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez. The program is broadcast on CUNY TV at 7:30 p.m. on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.
The war of words continues between Trump and Mamdani
Zohran Mamdani used his first public appearance since clinching the Democratic nomination for mayor to say why he believes President Trump has attacked him. Mamdani said the president’s goal was to divert attention from Republicans’ efforts to cut taxes for the rich and social safety net programs for the poor.
“I fight for working people,” Mamdani told a labor union rally in Manhattan. “Ultimately, it is easier for him to fan the flames of division than to acknowledge he has betrayed those working-class Americans.”
Mamdani said he was running for mayor to make the city a bastion against “authoritarianism” in Washington. He denounced Trump for threatening on Tuesday to have him arrested and for repeating baseless claims that Mamdani had immigrated to the United States illegally. Trump continued his attack on Wednesday, writing on his social media platform “I’m not going to let this Communist Lunatic destroy New York.”
“Rest assured,” the president added, “I hold all the levers and have all the cards.”
When an advisory council to the homeland security secretary met on Wednesday to discuss threats to the nation, Trump allies, including former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, spent part of the session focused on Mamdani.
Democratic leaders, even some who had been reluctant to endorse him, lined up behind him in outrage. Mamdani “is neither a communist nor a lunatic. And New York City doesn’t need to be saved by a wannabe King,” Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the House minority leader, wrote on social media.
METROPOLITAN diary
At MoMA
Dear Diary:
The Museum of Modern Art beckoned that late fall day, but it was packed. My favorite pieces were obscured by the crowds.
Stopped in front of Matisse’s “Dance” for a quiet moment, I noticed a young man standing slightly behind me. I don’t remember what he said, but we began walking through the gallery together before circling back to the Matisse.
Would I join him in a cup of coffee, he asked.
I nodded.
A wry smile emerged on his otherwise serious face.
“I don’t know if I can find a cup big enough!” he said.
I laughed.
Fifty-two years later, the dance continues.
— JoAnna DeCamp
Illustrated by Agnes Lee. Send submissions here and read more Metropolitan Diary here.
Glad we could get together here. See you tomorrow. — J.B.
P.S. Here’s today’s Mini Crossword and Spelling Bee. You can find all our puzzles here.
Stefano Montali and Ed Shanahan contributed to New York Today. You can reach the team at [email protected].
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James Barron writes the New York Today newsletter, a morning roundup of what’s happening in the city.
The post Don’t Let Shark Panic Spoil Your Fourth of July appeared first on New York Times.
