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A person swimming at Jones Seashore on Lengthy Island on Thursday could have been bitten by a shark, based on the Nassau County Police Division.
The 57-year-old man was swimming within the ocean round 1 p.m. when he “sustained a laceration to his proper foot,” the Nassau police stated in a information launch on Friday.
Medics who handled the person’s damage recognized it as a potential shark chew. Nassau County officers stated they’d improve patrols in any respect county seashores by way of Fourth of July weekend.
Final yr, after a number of shark sightings alongside Jones Seashore and Lido Seashore, officers briefly closed a number of seashores and started boat patrols alongside the shoreline.
Assaults are exceedingly uncommon within the space and lots of consultants say patrols do little greater than gasoline unwarranted concern of sharks. Scientists say the rationale it might appear to be extra sharks are being noticed is as a result of extra individuals are in search of them.
Hans Walters, a subject scientist with the Wildlife Conservation Society’s New York Aquarium, stated there isn’t any actual proof that native shark populations have elevated lately. He referred to as the risk that sharks pose to folks on New York seashores “very overblown.”
At a information convention on Friday morning at Nickerson Seashore, west of Jones Seashore, the Nassau County government, Bruce Blakeman, was imprecise on particulars of the report concerning the potential assault.
“I imagine it was on his leg,” he instructed reporters, including that “there was no clarification as to how he received his accidents.”
The surgeons who handled the person “thought it appeared like a fish chew, most likely a shark chew,” Mr. Blakeman stated.
As as to whether the damage was brought on by a shark, he stated, “It’s not 100% but it surely was a stage of concern.”
With a police boat monitoring the ocean behind him, Mr. Blakeman introduced that the county police could be rising patrols this summer season, each by boat and by helicopter, with hourly runs alongside the shoreline.
The county would additionally conduct monitoring by drone over ocean swimmers, he stated, “to ensure we’ve image of what’s happening.”
“We need to stress to all people that it’s secure to go within the ocean,” he stated, including that bathers ought to all the time swim with mates and with a lifeguard current.
Messages left for a New York State Parks spokesman weren’t instantly returned, and a hospital spokeswoman had no fast data on the affected person.
Alongside the Jones Seashore boardwalk on Friday afernoon, Isabella Mejia, 20, a school pupil from Whitestone, Queens, recoiled upon listening to information concerning the potential chew.
“It’s loopy to assume that might occur right here,” she stated. “However it’s one thing that doesn’t occur usually, so it doesn’t actually terrify me. I’d nonetheless go within the water if there have been already lots of people in there.”
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