A New York beach was closed to swimmers for the second time this month after five shark attacks occurred in the area in just two weeks.
Surfer Shawn Donnely, 41, was left with a four-inch gash after being bitten by what he thinks was a sand tiger shark, east of the main beach at Smith Point County Park, Long Island, at around 7:00AM on Wednesday morning, according to officials.
The 41-year-old revealed in a report that the shark knocked him off his board and bit him, but he was able to successfully defend himself by punching it away until a wave came to carry him to shore.
Per NBC New York, Donnely said: "It got my left calf and knocked me off my board...when I was falling off my board, I saw the fin and its back," before adding "I put my board between me and it, it went underneath me, I slapped it and it was gone."
And Donnely wasn't the only victim of a shark related incident that day, either.
A few hours later, Suffolk County officials confirmed that a 49-year-old Arizona man was taken by helicopter to Stony Brook University Hospital after a shark swam up behind him at Seaview Beach, near Fire Island, and bit him on the buttocks and his left wrist.
Fortunately, neither man was seriously injured, although Suffolk County's chief lifeguard explained Donnely was "a little shaken up, as you can imagine" at a briefing on Wednesday.
Smith Point Beach was closed to swimmers for a few hours following the attack on Donnely, with park rangers, lifeguards and drones deployed to find more sharks in the area. None were spotted, however and the beach reopened at 1:30PM.
The two attacks come just two weeks after a lifeguard was bitten at Smith Point during a training exercise. A shark, believed to be 4-5 feet long, bit the man on the chest and hand as he attempted to swat it away.
This incident was the first reported shark attack at Smith Point since the beach opened in 1959, according to the parks commissioner. It comes during a period of "dangerous marine activity" in the area over the past few weeks.
Another lifeguard was also attacked in Fire Island's Ocean Beach community last Thursday (July 7), while yet another possible attack was reported at Jones Beach on 30th June. Luckily, none of the victims were left with serious injuries.
Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone declared the attacks part of a "new normal" in a press conference on Wednesday, per Gothamist.
"To have two of these incidents happen for us, for this beach, is unprecedented. We’ve not seen this before,” explained Bellone, before adding: "What we’re looking at is something of a new normal. Tiger sharks are just a little bit closer to shore than they’ve been … Fortunately we’ve not seen any significant injuries."
Prior to this recent, Jaws-like spate of shark attacks, New York had recorded just four unprovoked incidents involving sharks in the past decade.
Per CNN, Ocean Beach fire department chief Ian Levine has since issued a warning to anybody visiting the beach, saying: "We are telling people that if they are swimming, they need to swim in lifeguard areas. They should only go waist deep and that they should be aware of their surroundings."
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