Several shark encounters and sightings were reported this week, from the East Coast to the Gulf Coast.
Five incidents that involved sharks or suspected sharks occurred Monday and Tuesday off New York, officials said. All victims survived.
At Fire Island, New York, a 15-year-old boy who was surfing early Monday evening was bitten by a shark on a heel and his toes, Suffolk County police said.
His heel and toes remained intact, and he was hospitalized with injuries that are not life-threatening, police said.
Also Monday, a 15-year-old girl sustained puncture wounds from an unknown source in the water off Robert Moses State Park in Babylon, New York, the state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation said in a statement.
The girl was treated at the scene by paramedics, the agency said. The incident prompted authorities to deploy drones to patrol Robert Moses and Jones Beach state parks.
The drones recorded imagery of multiple sharks in the water off Long Island about 8 a.m. Tuesday. Officials said they were most likely sand tiger sharks, which can grow larger than 10 feet.
About 1:50 p.m. Tuesday, a 47-year-old man wading in the waters off Quogue, a village on Long Island, was bitten on his right knee and had lacerations, police said in a statement.
The man didn’t see what attacked him. Quogue police said in a statement that “the bite was from a larger marine animal.”
The beachgoer was taken to the hospital with injuries that are not life-threatening, police said. After the incident, authorities said they encouraged visitors to stay out of the water.
Minutes after that attack, a man swimming off the Fire Island Pines hamlet on Fire Island was bitten on his right hand by a shark, Suffolk County police said.
The 49-year-old man was taken to the hospital with injuries that are not life-threatening, police said.
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