A woman swimming in the Rockaways (Queens) was seriously hospitalized yesterday with a “major” leg injury caused by a shark bite, the first attack of its kind on a NYC beach in 50 years.
Lifeguards pulled the 50-year-old victim from the beach near Beach 59th St. at 5:50 p.m. Monday with a bite to his left leg, according to a spokeswoman for the Parks Department.
Lifeguards pulled the other swimmers out of the water. “Serious injury”, wrote the FDNY press office in an email. “It appears to be a shark bite to the leg.” Police escorted an ambulance that transported the unidentified bather to Jamaica Hospital, where she was listed in stable condition, she later reported. Daily News.
The NYPD deployed quad-rotor drones over the waters from the beach immediately after the incident, but did not see any sharks.
NYPD and FDNY will continue to monitor the beach this Tuesdayand the Parks Department will delay the opening until at least 11 am Last year there were shark sightings in that area that forced the closure of the beach, without incident
“We hope for a full recovery for this swimmer,” Parks Department spokeswoman Meghan Lalor said. “While this was a terrifying event, we want to remind New Yorkers that shark bites in Rockaway are extremely rare. We remain vigilant in monitoring the beach and we always clear the water when we see a shark.”
Last week on Long Island, outside of NYC, some beaches were closed to the public after sightings of live and dead sharks.
Last month at least three shark bites were reported on Long Island beaches, including a teenage surfer who was attacked in the waters off Kismet Beach on Fire Island. A 15-year-old girl was also bitten at Robert Moses State Park.
This summer, drones certified by the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) are being used to monitor sharks and protect bathers on the beaches of Long Island (NY), with an estimated investment of $145,000 from the state budget from New York.
In May a fifteen-year-old surfer was bitten by a shark on a beach in Stone Harbor, New Jersey. Last summer there was an unusual series of human-shark encounters in and around New York. Some experts say there are not necessarily more sharks, but rather more sightings now that there is more monitoring.
Even in August of last year, a bather starred in what could be considered the most unusual video of summer 2022, at least in New York, when he was caught fighting bare-handed with a shark on the shore of a beach on Fire Island (Long Island). .
