A series of shark sightings has forced officials to repeatedly close parts of Rockaway Beach in recent days, leaving New Yorker beachgoers temporarily land-bound at the height of the Fourth of July weekend, officials said.
The sightings, which began on Tuesday, arrived as city and state officials stepped up use of technology to locate and track sharks on beaches in Queens and on Long Island.
As visitors descended for the holiday, traditionally one of the busiest periods of the year, the technology helped to keep swimmers safe, city officials said. But it also seemed to contribute to an unusual number of shark sightings: at least six in less than a week. Under city and state protocol, the beaches were closed each time, making for a halting and occasionally stressful weekend at the shore, swimmers said.
“We’ve always surfed in harmony with them,” said Kate Leddington, a longtime surfer who recently moved to Charlottesville, Va., after years in Brooklyn and was on the beach at Rockaway on Saturday. “There’s sharks out there always — it’s just now they’re using drones to see them.”
On Wednesday, in preparation for the holiday, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced that state agencies now have 28 camera-equipped drones to search for sharks, as well as 48 trained drone operators. Under the state and city protocol, when shark sightings are confirmed, swimming cannot resume until at least one hour after the sighting.
The city, which oversees Rockaway Beach, has a fleet of its own operated by the Police and Fire Departments and the emergency management office. And drones, once an alien sight at the beach, have become nearly as commonplace as Jet Skis.
On Tuesday afternoon, a shark was spotted at Beach 100th Street in Rockaway Beach, according to the Parks Department. Following protocol, officials put an hourlong pause on swimming for a mile around the sighting area. Twenty minutes after that ban was lifted, another shark was spotted nearby, and swimming was paused again until 4 p.m., officials said.
On Friday morning, two more sharks were spotted on drone footage just off the shore of Beach 32nd Street on the eastern side of the Rockaways, the Parks Department said. This time, officials closed the entirety of Rockaway Beach until 12:30 p.m. By 12:15 p.m., the sharks were still roaming the area, prompting officials to keep the beach closed until 2:30 p.m.
A few hours later, a shark was spotted miles away at Beach 113th Street, causing yet another closure, they said.
In a post on X on Friday, Kaz Daughtry, New York City’s deputy mayor for public safety, thanked the city’s emergency management department, lifeguards and operators for keeping New Yorkers safe. “These sightings were very close to beachgoers,” he wrote in a caption accompanying a video of sharks slithering through shimmering teal water.
On Saturday morning, another shark sighting closed yet another stretch of Queens beach. This time, a mile of coastline from Beach 86th to Beach 106th Streets was off-limits to swimmers until around 12:30 p.m. after a shark was reported off Beach 91st Street, the Parks Department said. The sightings continued into the evening, when drones spotted another shark about 100 feet from swimmers, prompting officials to close the beach just as lifeguards were wrapping up their shifts, Mr. Daughtry wrote on X.
This weekend’s sightings come one week after a 20-year-old woman was probably bitten by a shark at Jones Beach on Long Island in the first attack of the season at a New York State beach. There have been several other high-profile shark encounters on Long Island over the past few years, though shark experts maintain that the chance of a violent encounter with a shark remains low.
Janet Fash, a longtime chief lifeguard at Rockaway Beach, said she thought that shark appearances in the Rockaways had grown more frequent in the past few years. She attributed the surge to a number of factors, including a newly built rock jetty that has created a cove of sorts near a section of beach where people fish.
“Maybe it’s the bunker fish, maybe it’s that cove getting deeper and they’re coming in,” Ms. Fash said.
On Saturday, hours after the morning’s shark sighting, swimmers and surfers standing under brilliant summer sunshine on Rockaway Beach said they were mostly unfazed by the recent close encounters.
Maxence Lachard, 30, said he had been surfing near Beach 86th Street that morning when Parks security officers told him to get out of the water. Calmly, he made his way to shore, and when the coast was clear, he went back out.
“No risk, no fun,” said Mr. Lachard.
Later that afternoon, with beachgoers on high alert for sharks, something emerged from the shallow surf with a blue fin on its back.
This “shark” was Baloo, a Yorkie poodle, dressed up as if for doggy Halloween by its owners, Doby Espinoza and Oscar Europa.
Ms. Espinoza, 31, reassured people that his bark was worse than his bite. Baloo is 13, and all of his teeth have fallen out.
“People are safe!” she said. “It’s a toothless shark.”
Maia Coleman is a reporter for The Times covering the New York Police Department and criminal justice in the New York area.
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