A 16-year-old surfer was attacked by a shark Wednesday afternoon, making him the sixth beachgoer on Long Island to suffer a shark bite this summer.
The adolescent had a four-inch cut on his foot after being bitten about 60 feet offshore at Kismet Beach on Fire Island, according to the authorities.
This summer, there have been shark encounters from Massachusetts to Florida that have made beachgoers and local authorities nervous. The possibility of shark danger is enough to make even the most ardent shore-lover apprehensive about the sea. Red flags on Long Island, restricted beaches in Boston, and shark patrols in Miami are just a few examples.
According to the Volusia County Beach Safety Ocean Rescue, a 40-year-old lady was bitten on the leg over the weekend while wading in Daytona Beach Shores, most likely by a shark. Following many shark sightings, all of New York City’s Rockaway beaches were closed on Tuesday, according to the police.
“These people were probably just in or near the food source,” Greg Metger, a researcher with the Shark Research and Education Program at the South Fork Natural History Museum and Nature Center in Long Island, told CBS New York. “These sharks are very used to bumping into large things trying to get their food.”
On both coasts, there have been reports of bites; five have been made on Long Island in the past two weeks; one of these bites harmed a surfer and another a lifeguard. An incident last month in California left a 62-year-old swimmer with serious injuries to his stomach, arm, and leg.
Only one person in the United States perished in a shark attack last year, and that victim was a man boogie boarding in Morro Bay, California, on Christmas Eve. 73 unprovoked incidences were reported by researchers with the International Shark Attack File in 2018, up from the decade-low 52 bites in 2020 but closer to the 72 yearly worldwide average over the previous five years.
How likely is a shark bite at the beach?
Thoughts of a holiday shark attack shouldn’t gnaw on your mind unless you often worry about being struck by lightning during a summer storm. The likelihood of dying from a shark attack is 1 in more than 3.7 million, whereas the Shark Attack File estimates that 1 in 79,746 individuals will be hit by lightning and perish. Furthermore, according to statistics gathered by the environmental organization Defenders of Wildlife, bees and cows each kill 53 and 22 more people annually, respectively.
Sharks haven’t historically been near to the potentially most dangerous area of your trip. According to projections from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, approximately 43,000 Americans will die on the roads in 2021, making last year the worst year on record for road fatalities since 2005. According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, the death rate for car accidents in the U.S. in 2020 was 11.7 per 100,000 persons, ranging from 4.9 in Massachusetts to 25.4 in Mississippi.
According to the Shark Attack File, a project of the Florida Museum, the chance of dying in a car accident is one in 84 over the course of a lifetime. According to the group, people have a 1 in 5 probability of dying from heart disease and a 1 in 7 chance of dying from cancer.
Additionally, risks associated with water sports go beyond sharks. Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that almost 4,000 Americans drown each year, many of them children. 8,000 more people visit the emergency department.
Shark bites at beaches have increased
The reports of shark attacks are widespread for a reason, though. According to the Shark Attack File, the United States reports more shark attacks than any other nation (60%) and Florida had 38% of all shark attacks worldwide in 2021.
Experts concur that this is partly a case of identity confusion. Researchers found that young great whites, for instance, cannot distinguish between humans swimming, humans paddling surfboards, and prey like sea lions and seals, especially when they are still figuring out what constitutes food, in a study published in October.
However, even if a swimmer is not killed, the effects of a bite can be disastrous. A nine-foot shark, according to witnesses, approached a Florida teenager who was scalloping off the shore of Keaton Beach in Tallahassee earlier this month and bit her. The teenager was just 17 years old. Rhett Willingham, Addison Bethea’s brother, was able to bring her to safety, but according to CBS Miami, she was going to have her leg amputated above the knee.
And Bethea said she’ll still venture into the water.
“Don’t be scared of the ocean. I had so many people comment on my Instagram saying, ‘I’m so scared of the ocean now’. But I’m still going to get in the ocean when I heal and get better. I’m still going to do what I love, don’t just let fear overtake your life,” she said.
The good news about shark sightings
Sharks may be a source of anxiety for vacationers and visitors, but scientists claim they are a sign that conservation efforts are succeeding following the 1970s shark population fall caused by overfishing and pollution.
“Beginning in the early to mid ’90s, we started to work on this problem and say we really need to have the shark population back into healthy condition,” Bob Hueter, chief scientist at OCEARCH, told CBS New York.
When top predators like sharks disappear, Hueter said, that has an effect on the ecosystem’s other layers.
“When you cut that top layer off you end up losing things, sometimes even the whole habitat,” Hueter said.
Restoration efforts for the waterways off New York City have been successful in recent years. Many of these locations, including our coastal beaches and the Long Island Sound, have improved significantly over the past two years, according to Paparo. “A healthy environment is one where there are sharks in your neighborhood.”