A 37-year-old man swimming in the Atlantic Ocean at Jones Beach State Park on Thursday afternoon suffered an injury consistent with a “possible shark bite,” Nassau County police said.
The victim suffered the laceration to his right foot at 1 p.m. June 30, police said. The incident comes as agencies across Long Island have been stepping up shark patrols as beach season kicks into high gear for the Independence Day weekend and in the wake of an increasing number of shark sightings in recent years.
At least one child was bitten by a shark in the surf off Fire Island in 2018 and a Jones Beach State Park lifeguard said he was bitten by a shark in summer 2021. The Fire Island shark bite was the first on LI since 1948, one of seven in New York State since 1670, none of them fatal.
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Update: A prior version of this story reported that the age of the victim was 57 due to inaccurate information provided by the Nassau County Police Department.
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